Young people aged between 18 and 24 will be offered the chance to pee in the pot when advisers from Northumberland, Tyne and Wear chlamydia screening programme visit Heat nightclub, the Esplanade in Whitley Bay today (Thursday) from 10pm onwards.

Michelle Stamp, chlamydia screening programme manager, said: "This is a really good way of engaging with young people to help raise awareness about chlamydia.

"We want to offer as many young people as possible the opportunity to have a free confidential chlamydia test. It is a particularly nasty infection because it doesn't always have symptoms but it can leave you infertile.

"Chlamydia can be easily treated with a short course of antibiotics and we are making it as easy as possible for people to be tested and treated for this condition."

The campaign targets local young people under 25 to take the simple test for chlamydia, the most common sexually transmitted infection which is increasing among that age group.

If left untreated, chlamydia, which often has no symptoms, sometimes leads to pelvic inflammatory disease and can leave both men and women infertile. However, it can easily be treated with a free short course of antibiotics.

A sample is sent off free of charge to a laboratory and the results take a few days to come through and people can say whether they want to receive their results by text, telephone or post.

And specialist health advisers from the NHS are available to help people tell their sexual partners that they too may have chlamydia.

Testing kits and further information about chlamydia are available by calling (0191) 265 7014.