A community health worker has won a national nursing award for helping men in Bradford to lose weight.

Men's public health facilitator Andrew Harrison is the first winner of the new Queen's Nursing Institute/Men's Health Forum award for innovation and creative practice.

The 40-year-old community nurse impressed judges with a men's weight management group which was piloted with the help of 300 of Bradford's street cleaners and refuse collectors.

Mr Harrison, based at North Bradford Primary Care Trust's (PCT) Eccleshill Clinic, discovered that when the men gained higher-paid posts as wagon drivers their physical activity fell and their weight rose.

So he developed a support group and designed a six-week programme, with expert advice on healthy eating and exercise, to help them lose weight.

Mr Harrison said: "We were doing health MoTs, checking their blood pressure, cholesterol, body mass index and basic health checks. When a lot of them got promoted to wagon drivers they were piling the weight on. So we started the weight management course at Eccleshill.

"Slimmers' clubs are predominately female and men don't tend to go. If you put posters up, it will have zero effect but it's different if you go to them. A lot of men don't even know what their waist measurement is."

The £6,000 award money will allow Mr Harrison and his team to run health MoTs in a range of Bradford companies, where men will be offered the weight management course if they need it.

He hopes the work groups will ultimately become independent, each with its own leader.

Queen's Nursing Institute professional development facilitator Anne Pearson said: "This work will encourage men to take responsibility for their health and well-being and encourage them to discuss health issues in a comfortable environment.

"Men are traditionally one of the hardest groups to engage with when it comes to healthcare. There are so many barriers which prevent them accessing the services they need and Andrew is helping to break those down in a highly effective way."

The Men's Health Forum (MHF), which is the UK's leading men's health voluntary organisation, is promoting an obesity awareness week later this year.

An MHF spokesman said: "We congratulate Andrew and regard this as a vitally important piece of work which is using a creative and innovative approach."

Bradford Health Of Men is a five-year project, run by the Airedale, Bradford City, North Bradford and South & West Primary Care Trusts.