Sir.-As a school governor and a self-confessed health and fitness fanatic who is about to run the Flora London Marathon in a rhino suit for Save the Rhino, I would like to throw my weight fully behind The Gazette Healthy Kids campaign.

The health of the nation has become a big issue and will get bigger still.

The rise and rise in childhood obesity is truly frightening. It mirrors the rise in adult rates and can be traced to the twin causes of poor diet and lack of exercise.

The modern English diet contains far too many foods like crisps, chips, burgers, curries, pizzas, takeaways, chicken nuggets, turkey twizzlers, chocolate and ice-cream - all of these foods contain very high levels of fat, salt or carbohydrate.

We do not eat enough fruit, vegetables or fish, and we consume too much junk food.

There are people out there who say we should not be a nanny state. I love beer, curries, fry-ups and takeaways and I have no problem with people eating what they like, provided they exercise it off (as I do).

But therein lies the problem - most people do not know how many calories they eat or how little exercise they do.

Until they do, we will have to make sure we protect children from the worst dietary excesses.

I was very interested to hear Cllr David Kirk's comments about school foods. He's right of course - Hampshire school food needs improving, as does the food served in schools across the nation.

I would like to give Cllr Kirk my 100 per cent support in improving our school food.

I also heartily endorse recent initiatives from the Government such as breakfast clubs in schools, free milk, free fruit and veg as part of the five-a-day programme, and four hours of sport every week in schools.

I would like to see a second Basingstoke secondary school get specialist status in sport, preferably in the north of the town, to complement Brighton Hill Community College.

While Hampshire needs to invest more in school sports, nutrition and dietary education, Basingstoke needs to invest more in public sports facilities.

We need massive investment in sports facilities across the country, and securing the 2012 Olympics will provide a massive springboard for dramatically improving sports take-up, diet and the health of the nation.

And if we don't improve the health of the nation, there is a massive timebomb ticking away for the NHS.

-Andrew McCormick, Warwick Road, Winklebury.