RUNCORN doctors are to prescribe fresh fruit instead of drugs.

Castlefields Health Centre is looking at prescribing fruit for sick adults after being inspired by fruit for school children programme.

People will get a 20 per cent discount for four weeks at the local food co-op.

Dr Matthew Kierny, the man behind the plan, said eating fruit and veg is the next best thing to stopping smoking.

He said eating five portions of fruit and veg a day would save 150 lives a year in Halton.

When the fruit was first brought into Halton schools some children were bewildered - one Simms Cross pupil was confused by a banana and didn't know how to eat it and half of Hale Primary pupils had never eaten strawberries.

Castlefields GP David Lyon told a meeting of Halton PCT the school fruit programme had been 'wonderful'.

"The total effect is huge because the number of people coming into the surgery talking about how they have tried a banana and want more is massive," he said.

Halton's director of public health Dr Daniel Seddon said the true idea behind the programme was not simply about giving fruit to children in schools.

"This is to do with changing patterns of behaviour in the community," he said.

The department of health supplies the fruit, which the children usually sit and eat socially during lesson time.

Teachers in Halton and across the country have noted improvements in pupils' concentration and health when they take part in the programme.