STARS OF TV's runaway hit reality TV show The Hotel, set in Torquay, are the first to sign up to the Herald Express loveLIFE campaign.

Mark Jenkins, the owner of the Grosvenor Hotel in Belgrave Road — rarely seen on screen without a cigarette — has pledged to give up at least five cigarettes a day.

The star of Channel 4's The Hotel has signed up to the loveLIFE campaign along with colourful assistant manager Christian Scott-Lee and larger-than-life reservations manager Alison Pennell, who are both pledging to lose weight.

Mark says he has smoked since he was 11, when cigarettes cost 10p for 10.

"I smoke say 20 to 30 a day and it's costing me £100 a week. I am not a stupid heavy smoker, I am not constantly with a cigarette in my hand which is the way the edited programme makes me look.

"But I don't want to be an old smoker with a hacking cough every morning. I used to spend four hours in a gym with a personal trainer. It became a way of escaping, it used to clear my head. I want to restart that this year.

"I also need to cut down my smoking, I am not going to instantly give it up but I will pledge to cut down. It will do me good, especially having smoked for some 40 years."

Assistant manager Christian Scott-Lee, who made such an impression on the show with his drag act at the hotel's cabaret night, is also cutting back on what he eats, drinks and smokes, and is pledging to do more for the campaign.

"I am doing a healthy eating kick, and have given up red meat and am trying, trying to smoke less," he said. "I don't think I could give up smoking entirely, but I will match Mark on five a day. I will also walk to work rather than drive, so I can pledge some steps. I have lost five pounds and I feel a lot better. I am limiting going out to a couple of nights a week.

"I am not following any particular diet, it is a Christian diet and I am very strict. I have lost so much weight I have dropped two dress sizes but I want to lose a lot more, and I wish I had done it a long time ago."

Reservations manager Alison has pledged to lose more weight. "I have been on a Slimming World diet for two weeks and have lost six pounds already," she said.

"I am doing a zumba class at Shiphay school twice a week. My pledge is to eat healthily and exercise a lot more. I am really pleased with the way it is going so far, I do feel healthier. I am quite proud of myself for sticking to the diet but with the exercising as well it makes you feel a lot better in your mind as well as your body."