He may be barely out of nappies, but this is the moment little Stephen Morrison took Britain's first lady by surprise.

Three-year-old Stephen planted a dollop of modelling clay on the nose of Cherie Blair.

Mrs Blair shot backwards in her child-size chair as giggling Stephen playfully lunged forward with the red clay, which he had crafted into a snail before doing what many of her opponents could only dream of.

Mrs Blair said, "Thank you very much," before helping the toddler remake the squashed snail.

Stephen's father Jackie, 38, said: "He's always up to stuff like that."

Stephen stole the spotlight as Mrs Blair visited the Sure Start Project in Hastings.

She toured the project building on the Broomgrove estate.

The project, for families and children, was set up in May using Government cash to help combat the area's social problems.

Member Gill Fulton, said: "There used to be a lot of arson attacks on cars, gangs of youths and a lot of crime but Sure Start has helped reduce that.

"It has helped produce a community spirit in the area and at the same time given people an incentive to do well in life."

Mrs Blair, wearing a green silk scarf and large overcoat spent an hour chatting to staff and members before being driven with Hastings and Rother MP Michael Foster to the Conquest Hospital in Hastings, where she talked to cancer staff and patients.

Among them was Bill Brann, 72, who said he came in specially to see Mrs Blair.

He told her he was on the mend due to the hospital's dedicated staff.

Mrs Blair, 47, told him she would have loved to have brought her son Leo, now six months old, but was unsure how he would cope with the long journey from London.

As Mrs Blair left the hospital she was handed a bouquet by leukaemia patient Faye Ashworth, four.

Mother Melissa said: "Mrs Blair was lovely. Although Faye didn't really know who she was, she was still very excited because she knew it was someone famous."

Mrs Blair's final visit was to Thomas Peacocke School in Rye, where she saw how Government cash had helped buy thousands of pounds' worth of computers.

After touring the computer department Mrs Blair fielded questions from sixth formers.

Students asked her how she managed to juggle her responsibilities as a top QC, prime minister's wife and mother of four.

She said: "It's not easy. There are so many demands. It's just a case of managing time, something which I find incredibly hard and sometimes fail miserably."