BLACKBURN with Darwen health chief Dr Pervez Muzaffar has backed a charity’s campaign to encourage black and Asian residents to have a free health check.

One Voice, through the Baiter Sehat campaign, is planning to carry out health checks at mosques and community centres, in partnership with Blackburn with Darwen Council.

The charity is concerned that less than 20per cent of the health checks in the borough last year were carried out on black and Asian residents.

The dates and venues for the health checks are still being finalised.

Dr Muzaffar, who sits on the board of Blackburn with Darwen Clinical Commissioning Group, said: “I welcome the campaign run by One Voice to increase awareness about health checks in the community.

“Remember, most of these diseases do not initially give any symptoms.

“A simple health check can detect disease at early stages, “Early diagnosis and early treatment add years to life,” he added.