DERBY County Football Club is one of the latest organisations to join a campaign to tackle obesity in the East Midlands.

Twenty-three businesses have joined the East Midlands Platform of Food, Physical Activity and Health in a bid to find ways to improve the health of their staff.

Members include Derby's hospitals, Shoe Zone, Slimming World and Nuffield Health.

Simon Carnall, community manager for the Rams, said the club was doing its bit to tackle obesity.

He said: "Our community staff visit schools in the county and deliver both classroom and practical activities."

The first Platform meeting took place on June 9 and since then membership numbers have doubled.

The chairman, Councillor David Parsons, said: "It is recognised that between £2.3 and £3.6 billion in lost earnings are attributable to obesity nationally.

"The cost to the NHS in 2007 was £4.2 billion."

The idea of an obesity platform has been used in Europe but this is the first one in the UK.