Fresh Smoke Free North East, launched in 2005, was the UK's first dedicated regional office and programme for tobacco control.

It won Gold in the inaugural Chief Medical Officer's Public Health Awards at the Royal College of Physicians in London last night.

Sir Liam Donaldson, Chief Medical Officer, said: "Public health is often an under-recognised part of our healthcare systems. I hope that these awards will give an opportunity to shine a light on the individuals and teams who work so hard to improve the health of the nation."

The main objectives of the long term evidence-based Fresh programme are to change the social norms around tobacco use, making it much less affordable, accessible, and attractive.

It also aims to reduce smoking prevalence by supporting smokers to stop, reducing youth uptake and reducing exposure to second-hand smoke.

Smoking rates have declined at twice the rate nationally in the region — from 29 percent of adults in 2005 to 22 percent in 2007. The North East no longer has the highest smoking rates in the country.

Ailsa Rutter, Director of Fresh said; "This is fantastic news and a great honour. This award is the result of hard work from many partners involved in the programme. We have had the biggest drop of smoking rates in any region and that is down to taking an evidenced based comprehensive approach to reducing smoking prevalence."

Coun Nick Forbes, Chairman of Fresh, said:"It is great that partnership working in the North East has been recognised in this way. Smoking is the biggest increase cause of ill health and early deaths in our region and we aim to tackle this head on. We are not prepared to allow people to suffer the ill effects of tobacco and our aim is a smoke free world for future generations."