To be a Veggie or not to be a Veggie. That was the dilemma for Radcliffe Times trainee reporter LENA EARP when she found the temptation of tasting meat again clashing with her moral stance.

March has been branded National Veggie Month, and it estimated there are already around four million vegetarians in the UK.

Lena turned from meat eater to hater around ten years ago, only for her to slip back into her old chicken-chomping ways. The 26-year-old, formerly of Plymouth Grove, Radcliffe, is currently studying for an NCTJ post- graduate diploma in print journalism at Liverpool Community College. Here she tells of her personal fight of mind against matter.

THERE is a growing trend towards vegetarianism these days, with an estimated 5,000 people converting to the meat-free diet each week.

National campaign group Animal Aid is promoting this month as a celebration of the healthy and humane vegetarian diet.

The group, in conjunction with celebrity chef Dan Green (TV's Food Cop/Fat Academy), has produced a glossy recipe booklet, "The Greatest, Healthiest, Tastiest, Veggie Recipes Ever!' which contains dietary information from an expert nutritionist.

I was a veggie for almost ten years, a fact of which I am very proud.

However, I reverted back to my former meat-eating self two months ago when I suddenly found the urge to eat chicken at a New Year Party in January.

I ate chicken for the first time there since I began my vegetarian way of life. It was a mad and spur of the moment thing, blurting out to my friend: "I want some chicken!"

My friend was shocked and asked: "Are you sure?".

I was fed up of having to avoid certain foods and when I finished the chicken I felt guilty. I had mixed feelings about what I had done and I felt that I had let myself down somehow as I broke the promise I made to myself to never eat meat again.

However, strangely as it may seem, I also felt brave and kind of liberated at the fact I no longer felt the need to have any restrictions placed on what I could and could not eat.

For the past four years, I added a bit of fish to my diet, partly influenced by my mum, who was worried I was "lacking in something". So I got my amino acids and iron from eating fish.

That made being a veggie a lot easier, but in reality I was only a semi-veggie. I did not live on a proper vegetarian diet. I was kidding myself really, and in the end, my heart was not in it. I'd tried but failed in the veggie steaks, er . . . stakes.

It made me admire even more people who stick to their principles and remain vegetarian, although I would never rule out going back to my Quorn eating days.

My reasons for being a veggie was that I did not (and still do not) like the way animals are killed for meat. I find animal suffering upsetting. By not eating meat I felt I was helping the fight against animal cruelty.

People who decide to become veggie usually do so because they are against animal suffering or because they believe it is a healthier diet than a meat eating one.

Animal Aid say that in the UK alone, more than 900 million animals are slaughtered for food every year. Most will have been raised in factory farms in crowded, filthy, disease-ridden conditions, before meeting a brutal end in a slaughterhouse.

Going veggie is not only good for animals, it is good for people, too.

The World Cancer Research Fund has said: "Vegetarian groups have been shown to have a lower risk of cardiovascular disease, lower rates of obesity and longer life expectancy than meat-eaters."

Dan Green, who knows all about being overweight as bad eating habits made him a fat and miserable teenager, said: "I create food that people want to eat that just happens to be healthy and low fat.

" I do not believe in diets but in a change of life approach."

Eating meat, say Animal Aid, is also bad for the environment.

A spokesman for the group said: "One quarter of the earth's surface is wasted as pasture for livestock, while wildlife habitats dwindle".

I agree that being a vegetarian is a healthy way of life and I am glad that I did it.

But I also know how difficult it can be to maintain at times, especially if you were brought up on meat as a child as I was.

I would advise anyone who is thinking of becoming a vegetarian to follow nutritional advice and ensure that they are getting a good and balanced diet.

Oh, and their willpower needs to be longer-lasting than mine.