Children are under a lot of pressure these days to adopt unhealthy habits: from their peers in school or on the street, from images portrayed in books and magazines, on television programmes and videos....All these can encourage them to experiment with drugs.

Those are not just hard drugs like heroin, cocaine and even cannabis, but also alcohol and nicotine which can have a devastating effect on young bodies and damage their systems for life.

It is well known that children respond not just to peer pressure but also to images and icons. They see their favourite pop stars smoking and drinking. They read about them taking drugs as part of what is presented as a glamorous lifestyle. It all adds to the pressure to try and copy aspects of that lifestyle to appear "cool".

So it makes perfect sense to invoke some of those images and icons to achieve the opposite effect. That is the laudable aim of the pilot project in which the police intend to involve Bradford City players in promoting a "positive lifestyle" among the youngsters of Scholemoor Estate.

Parents, teachers, schools, police and doctors all have a role to play in spreading the health-education message and guiding youngsters away from habits which can do them harm. But it can do nothing but good when some of their heroes - their local soccer stars - take the time to help to get the message across.

The more that people like the Bantams players show themselves keen to give something back to the community through projects like this, the healthier and safer local children's futures will be.

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.