Inside the poor British town where the life expectancy is the same as Ethiopia, one person a month d

Publish date: 2024-03-31

ROB Hill is only 46 but already he's planning his cremation. Having been told he has just six months to live because of chronic lung condition emphysema, he's making preparations so that his two young children don't have to sit through a ceremony that lasts longer than half an hour.

But he's far from the only person in Stockton-on-Tees contemplating his mortality - in his postcode, men will die 20 years earlier than in a town just five miles away.

In contrast, the UK national life expectancy for a man is 79, and 82 for women.

In Yarm, a more affluent area just a few miles away where houses cost an average of £285,000, people can expect to live well into their 80s.

But how is it that your postcode can knock off so many years from your life expectancy?

Stockton-on-Tees, where Rob lives, is a deprived market town in the North East, with house prices averaging £130,000.

It is also home to the biggest health gap in the UK.

Tonight he is one of the people behind the life expectancy statistics profiled on a new BBC documentary, Panorama: Get Rich or Die Young.

The doc, presented by journalist Richard Bilton, explores the stark link between poverty and an early grave.

The real stories behind the statistics

Rob, an overweight smoker admits his health problems are down to his poor lifestyle choices, saying starting smoking was "the worst decision" he has ever made.

"I could go to sleep tonight, and it's just gone, lights out," he says, fearful of the lung disease that causes shortness of breath. "It's the last thing I want my kids to see."

Prior to becoming a cabbie, he had a healthy diet, but due to his job he began to rely on fast food on-the-go - leading to the weight piling on and his health issues.

As he frankly discusses his cremation with a funeral planner, his young kids Harvey and Mel discuss the impact of their dad's terminal diagnoses.

"Dad is the best," says his son Harvey. "He's not gone yet...but no-one ever knows when he's going to be gone."

"I can see the effect it [my diagnosis] has on my partner and children," says Rob. "I don't like thinking about it, but... I know what's coming for me."

Nicotine isn't the only drug blighting the health of residents of Stockton-on-Tees.

We also meet 58-year-old grandmother Ingrid, whose 31-year-old daughter Amy has been forced to give up her newborn baby for adoption due to her crack cocaine addiction.

Ingrid, who has physical and mental health problems that are exacerbated by the stress of her daughter's addiction, has also formally adopted Amy's other kids Marni and Rico - but heartbreakingly is unable to do the same for her third grandchild.

Amy is trying to get clean but still disappears for the night and goes to a crack den, prompting Ingrid to chuck her out of the family home.

Amy, who has lost everything due to drugs, knows she will die if she carries on.

"More than likely, I will die young," she tells Richard. "I expect that, it's just part and parcel of it all."

Every four weeks, somebody dies due to drugs in the town.

Drug deaths have more than doubled in Stockton-on-Tees since 2001, with experts saying that this is due to high unemployment levels, boredom and people in poorer areas looking to boost their income through dealing.

Deprivation also often means a user is less likely to get care and treatment.

And Ingrid expresses fears that she too will die young from the stress of her coping with her daughter's addiction.

Suicide, too, is twice as common in deprived than richer areas, as the pressures of living below the breadline can take their toll on mental health.

In the programme we meet Yvonne, who has battled depression and anxiety, and has tried to kill herself several times.

Unable to work, she can't afford private counselling, and due to budget cuts, the mental health centre she relied on has been closed - leaving her with nowhere to go.

Dying of poverty

Experts say that poverty is directly to blame for the low life expectancy in the area, fuelling poor mental health, drug and alcohol dependency and obesity.

Prof Clare Bambra, from Newcastle University, led a five-year study into health inequality in Stockton-on-Tees.

"The poor are dying younger because they have less money in order to live a healthy life. They have more pressures on them, they have more insecurity and they have less control over their life," she says.

Dr David Hodges works at the GP practice in the centre of town.

He says many of the patients he sees have "preventable" diseases, such as cancers caused by smoking or obesity-related illnesses such as heart disease and type-2 diabetes, something that needs fixing.

"People have the right to get to retirement age healthy," he says. "I don't accept as a society that we should be expecting people to be unwell in their 40s."

Heading for an early grave

Nothing shows the scale of the life expectancy problem in Stockton-on-Tees more than the town's cemetery.

As presenter Richard walks through, he's stunned to see so many people have died in their 30s and 40s.

"The health inequality is written on these gravestones," he says.

"The ages are shocking - this place is full of people who have died too young. It makes 60 seem like a big age to die when it's no age at all."

The future of the town

It's clear something needs to change - and fast - before more people die young from preventable illnesses.

Leading the way is primary school headmistress Bernie Rizzi-Allan, who has introduced health therapies and counselling to help the local kids - with amazing results. She claims that within her school, children from less wealthy areas are out performing those from affluent backgrounds.

It's thought kids from deprived backgrounds fall behind early on, something Bernie wants to change.

"People's health should not be defined by their social class," says Bernie.

"Our children have got just as much of an innate ability, potential and talent.

"If we don't recognise that, we're losing this resource. The country is losing so much potential."

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The government has previously stated that it is committed to helping address the wealth inequality - however the unfairness is laid bare when you look at the situation in Stockton-on-Tees.

As local undertaker Alison tells Richard: "You look, and you see somebody's age and you think that that's far too young - it reaches out into all the years that follow."

Panorama: Get Rich or Die Young is on BBC One tonight, 8.30 pm