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18% of the people living in the South Wales Valleys report long term sickness, this is more than double the UK average. One in four people here suffer from respiratory problems and the cancer rates are amongst the highest in Western Europe.

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Life in the South Wales Valleys Reporter: 18% of people living in the South Wales Valleys report long-term sickness. This is more than double the UK average. One in four people here suffer from respiratory problems and cancer rates are among the highest in Western Europe. Health professionals put these extraordinary statistics down to lifestyle and culture. Jackie Matthews: Smoking is a huge problem. The main diseases we see are chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, asthma and lung cancer, all of which have a legacy related to smoking and poor diet and poor lifestyle. It’s called the valley lifestyle. Kevin Morgan: We are still the sick man of Europe and the sick woman of Europe by the way for reasons which are not to do with coal nor is it just poverty. And this is also important because there are equally poor regions in the European union which don’t have our illness figures. So it’s not poverty, it’s culture plus poverty. And those are the reasons for our illness figures today in my view. Reporter: Drug use is also a big problem in the valleys. Mark Saunders was addicted to heroine for ten years and has been to prison twice. Mark Saunders: At the moment, it was such a good culture and the values. It is just how it is everywhere. It’s the boredom of the actual valleys which is there is nothing for our children. It’s how it was tied in the moment and in fashion, it’s strange. In the valley, this fashion is coming from London, the culture of London where it was like cocaine and heroine and it slipped into the valleys now. Reporter: There are an estimated 10,000 drug addicts in Wales. Mark is now on a court order to attend a group called “Make a Change”. It costs 4,000 to 5,000 per year per patient to fund community based treatment. Mark Saunders: It’s basically just getting things off your chest and rid your problems to get off your chest. A lot of people realize through issues they just can’t talk about. Reporter: It’s this culture Lindsay Whittle is fighting to change. Mortality rates here in the valleys are the highest in Wales. Lindsey’s passion for promoting a healthier way of life is driven by the fact that four of his school friends died before they reached 50. Lindsay Whittle: They died far too young. One died to HIV AIDS related illness, another through a heart attack. One had a severe mental problem and another through substance misuse. And I find that tragic and I now regard one of my missions in life as a politician in this area to ensure that people lived as healthfully and as long as possible. These young people surely deserve a good chance in life. Reporter: The Young Mum’s Centre in Caerphilly is a support group for teenage mothers. Today, they’re discussing health. The UK has the highest teenage pregnancy rate in Western Europe. But in Caerphilly, the rate is 64% higher than the UK national average. Lisa Kemp has a two-year-old daughter, Kia. Lisa Kemp: I caught for Kia when I was 15. I was 16 when I had her. I had her on boxing day and then I started coming here from then. That helped me a lot and kept me sane. Kia is so young, I can’t get a job really because she’s not in school yet and I’m really going to just drive her. Reporter: The young mums are now being encouraged to cook healthy food for their children as part of the council’s health promotion drive. Lisa Kemp: Down here, they're promoting healthy eating and that because so many people are going down to the fish shop and McDonalds because it’s a lot easier to go down there instead of cooking something healthy so they just go to the fish shop and get some chips. Reporter: Unhealthy diets are thought to contribute to the rising incidents of diabetes known to affect more than 93,000 people in Wales. For the first time ever, Wales is seeing type2 diabetes in children normally only seen in people over 40. Diabetes cost the National Health Service in Wales 55 million pounds a year. Specialist nurse Sian Bodmin sees the patterns recurring. Sian Bodmin: It’s very much a cultural thing. The culture of illness and disease will be within a family and it’s very difficult to break out of a cycle and try and liberate your self from that. Reporter: Lindsay Whittle chairs a local committee called the Health Alliance and he’s on his way to open a new healthy living center. Lindsay Whittle: It’s important that we educate ourselves. It’s not good as drinking and smoking ourselves to death and taking no exercise, we’ve got to take a little bit of responsibility ourselves. Reporter: Reaching the health target set by the international millennium development goals applies as much to areas like South Wales as it does to developing countries. Lindsay Whittle: Well, good luck to Pontlottyn Healthy Living Center. I wish you every success and I hope you live a long, happy and healthy lives. Thanks very much indeed. If you link ill health to anything, you have to link it to education and full employment. But what you do need without a shadow of a doubt is an end to the poverty of the valleys. Good or well-paid jobs will help ensure that people live longer. Reporter: As one of the poorest regions in Europe, Wales receive substantial European union aide in the form of structural funds. Areas deemed to be lagging behind qualify for objective on money to promote development. 1.2 billion pounds has been pumped into West Wales in the valleys since 2000, but there are now fears that new members of the EU will start to take priority over Wales. Lindsay Whittle: Quite clearly, many of the Eastern European countries are objective for it. And the will also need European assistance and it’s clear that that’s where the money will eventually go, and that’s a good thing. But I think that the indication are that the plug will not be pulled in Wales and it will not stop just like that. It will be gradual with it. Reporter: The advent of EU funds led to a floury of new company startups followed in turn by a rash of company failures. Terry Jones: There were so many factories that came maybe two years and then they’re gone. You know, at the end of the day, to me, that was wasted money. That’s a very harsh way to play with people’s lives. Kevin Morgan: The most important example without a doubt in the last 50 years of a problem with a company will be LG. Lucky gold star as it used to be called, the Korean company, which was the biggest single foreign investment project in the history of the European union and it came to Newport in South Wales and never ever delivered on the jobs promised. Andrew Davies: If the company don’t create the number of jobs or they close, then we will actually reclaim the ground and that is exactly what I did with the Korean company LG. You know, I think we take a very business-like attitude that this is public money and we do expect value for money. And if the conditions are not fulfilled, then we will reclaim all or part of that money.