Supermarket shoppers were among almost 60 people who had their blood pressure checked during a health initiative in Helensburgh.

People jumped at the opportunity to have their readings taken at a check-point set up in the Waitrose store.

Know Your Blood Pressure Day was organised by Helensburgh Garelochside Rotary Club, whose members were impressed with the level interest shown by the public, who came from Alexandria and Dumbarton as well as the Burgh.

GP practice nurses were to hand to take the readings and advise people if further action was needed.

Sheenah Nelson from the Rotary club told the Advertiser that one man showed a high reading and he was advised to see his GP.

Sheenah said: "When the gentleman arrived, he said his wife read about it in the local paper and said he should come.

"I have heard since that he has visited his GP practice and this is now being addressed.

"It just goes to show if the Advertiser article hadn’t been seen by his wife, would have been none the wiser and it could have been a very different ending."

At the same day last year, one man's blood pressure was found to be so high he was taken immediately to Vale of Leven Hospital for treatment but suffered a heart attacked two days later after being released.

Sheena added: "This is the second year that Helensburgh Garelochside Rotary have held this event in Waitrose Helensburgh."

Rotary 'Know Your Blood Pressure Day' is a national awareness day that focuses on high blood pressure as a key risk factor for stroke.

A stroke is a brain attack which happens when the blood supply to the brain is cut off, caused by a clot or bleeding in the brain.

There are more than 1000,000 strokes in the UK each year, that is a stroke every five minutes.

There are over 1.2 million people in the UK living with the effects of stroke.

Sheenah thanked manager and staff of Waitrose for allowing the club to use their store.

She said this would not have been possible without the support of practice nurses Sylvia Meldrum and Angela McKell from the Arrochar GP Practice who gave of their time to support this event.

She added: "My thanks also to Jean Riddington of the Chest Heart and Stroke Club in Helensburgh, fellow Rotarians who supported the event and to the Advertiser for the publicity."