NIPPING down to your local supermarket or DIY store, placing a bet in a bookies or even having a hair cut will soon be a life saver.

For health trainers across Bolton have vowed to take The BIG Bolton Health Check to the people by offering tests in a range of community locations.

As well as offering the 10-minute health assessments in traditional places such as community centres, GP surgeries and at local events, specially trained staff will be targeting the over-45s in dozens of other places across the borough.

These will include supermarkets, DIY stores, bookmakers, barbers, pubs, mosques, religious buildings, bingo halls and cafes.

Raziya Scaachi, who works as a health trainer at the Waters Meeting Health Centre, said: "This is definitely about prevention rather than cure. We are trying to stop someone from going to accident and emergency with a heart attack.

"We are carrying out the assessments in a range of places because a lot of people do not feel comfortable in a clinical setting.

"We will do anything we can to make having the test easier. It will be available in the evenings and at weekends if that is what people want, and we will even visit people in their homes."

There are 88,000 over-45s in Bolton who would benefit from the test.

In the past two years 41,449 people have had the assessment, which includes a finger prick blood test, a blood pressure check and a few questions about lifestyle.

Health bosses now want to test the remaining people and, along with The Bolton News, have launched The BIG Bolton Health Check.

It aims to test 46,000 people in the next 10 months to determine whether they are at risk of developing cardiovascular disease.

Experts have estimated there could be a many as 10,000 people in the borough who are at a high risk of developing heart disease over the next 10 years.

It is hoped that everyone over the age of 45, who has not had a heart attack, a history of cardiovascular disease, had a stroke or suffers from diabetes, will have the test.