THE last few weeks have seen an important new report from the local Health Board’s Director of Public Health.

With the 70th anniversary of the NHS just last month, it’s vital that we look at what the big health challenges of the next 70 years are - particularly in South Wales: the birthplace of the health service.

The Director’s report does a good job in doing this and pulls together the hard data about what’s happening and what needs to be done. It finds that, while there’s important work going on in the Valleys, there’s still a lot to do.

One of the figures that really struck me was how over 1,000 people in Gwent every year are getting cancers which could be prevented.

Obesity is the second main cause of cancer and the report also points out that up to 80% of young people who are obese stay that way as adults. This means that tackling obesity and, specifically, childhood obesity are urgent priorities for improving health, preventing cancer and saving lives going forward.

This requires a real partnership: working with the health service, helping local schools promote fitness, supporting local clubs and community groups and encouraging all of us to do our bit to get healthy. But there’s a lot that the UK Government can do as well though.

One thing they can do is to clamp down on junk food adverts. At the moment, some of the unhealthiest food around is being promoted at times when families are most likely to be watching TV.

This has to change, so I pressed the new UK Health Secretary about banning these ads from being shown before 9pm at night in Parliament last month. The Government is consulting about a ban, but this is a crucial step to reduce childhood obesity and it can’t just be left to go in to the middle distance so I’m going to keep pressing Ministers for quicker, concrete action and for more details.

I mentioned earlier about the good work happening locally and I was pleased to visit an important example of this in Brynmawr earlier this month.

Organised by Aneurin Leisure, Tai Calon, United Welsh and the sports charity StreetGames, the Fit and Fed scheme puts on free activities and games such as rugby, football and netball for young people at different towns across the borough on every week day during August. Every young person taking part also gets a healthy meal, so this gives a real helping hand to young people and their families all around Blaenau Gwent over the holidays.

Fit and Fed shows us how we can work together to support families across our borough and I was glad to support the good work the organisers have put in and see how it’s helping young people across Blaenau Gwent.