A PRESTON college is spreading the word about meningitis the old-fashioned way - by making two students wear sandwich boards.

The unusual campaign kicks off tomorrow (Friday) and involves two 'lucky' students parading around Preston College's St Vincents Road campus to spread the word about the killer brain bug.

College bosses say the project is the first phase of at its Healthy College Campaign for 1999/2000, which is designed to promote healthy living among the thousands of students attending Preston College.

A spokesman for the college's marketing office said: "We are all used to receiving serious letters about health issues, but we thought this was a more fun way of raising awareness on an obviously serious subject."

Students are one of the groups most prone to contracting meningitis, which can result in deafness, blindness, loss of limbs, and sometimes even death.

Because of their lifestyle, which often involves socialising and studying in a close proximity to one another, students across the country are being targeted in a bid to slash the number of people falling foul of the disease.

Preston college students are this week being vaccinated against meningococcal C Meningitis, but this Friday's sandwich board exercise is designed to let students know they are still at risk.

Preston College's occupational health officer, Angela Hammond, said: "Around 150 young people nationally die from this disease each year, so we felt it was important to make this the first campaign of the healthy college initiative.

"We want to create a strong awareness of all health issues concerning the college and students throughout the year.

"A healthy college is not just about awareness, it is about action and healthy thinking all the time."

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.