Janet Tonge is getting to grips with the challenges ahead as she takes up her new post with NHS East Lancashire, formerly East Lancashire Primary Care Trust.

Janet (37), who was born and brought up in Stockport, has been appointed to help the primary care trust with it's massive campaign "Save A Million Years Of Life" over the next four years.

She will be working with partner organisations, such as the local authorities in Burnley, as well as the voluntary and community sectors and other local organisations that can influence the health and well-being of local residents.

Janet has had 16 years of working in related activities in the North East and across the Pennines in Yorkshire.

She will be involved in NHS East Lancashire's high-profile health and well-being campaign that has been making people aware of health issues through a series of hard-hitting advertising campaigns that are running across Burnley and East Lancashire.

Janet, who has an honours degree from Oxford University and a public sector management postgraduate qualification from Birmingham University, says she sees herself as "an extra pair of hands" in the quest to improve health and well-being in East Lancashire.

She said: "I'm excited by the prospect of working on this major initiative, which has the backing and goodwill of all the key partners in the area.

"My role is to help link up action within NHS east lancashire and join up the work we're doing on health inequalities.

"The PCT board have set clear targets to reduce health inequalities and our key focus is the campaign to save a million years of life. I'm looking forward to adding to the good work that is under way already and to help improve our effectiveness.

"It's a sad fact of life that not everybody lives as long as they should or lives as healthy a life as they could. I see myself as an extra pair of hands to help us achieve our aim in the shortest possible timescale."