Thursday, 5th April 2018
The aim is to encourage at least 24,901 people to pledge to take part on Your Mile Your Way Day, which in cumulative distance terms would equate to going around the world.
Your Mile Your Way is being coordinated by Lancashire County Council as part of its Active Lives and Healthy Weight programme and leisure providers who deliver the programme in each area will all be running activities on May 18th – including Pendle Leisure Trust’s Up and Active team.
A range of activities are being planned right across the county on the day that will be free to join in or alternatively, people can just do their own thing —as long as they remember to pledge their mile via the Your Mile Your Way website (www.yourmileyourway.co.uk)
Pendle Leisure Trust’s Up and Active team want people to join them in a three-park challenge which will see teams transport an actual sofa for the length of a mile around Alkincoats Park (10am), Barrowford Park (3pm) and Victoria Park (6.30pm), to provide a new spin on the Couch to 5k programme.
The initiative is being supported by comedian Ted Robbins — star of Phoenix Nights — who shed more than four stone and became a gym regular after surviving an on-stage heart attack.
Ted said: “It took a cardiac arrest for me to look at my life differently. But during my recovery I started doing short daily walks which doctors recommended to get my strength back up.
“I started off doing a walk around the hospital ward, then a 15-minute walk, then half an hour, and now I have built up to a couple of miles. I would love to eventually do a fundraising walk or jog. The great thing is, I enjoy it and I look and feel younger than I have for ages.”
Figures show that 23 per cent of adults, equating to around 218,000, in Lancashire do less than 30 minutes of moderate activity a week, when the Chief Medical Officer recommends adults undertake 150 minutes of activity each week.
Children aged between 5 and 18 should be taking part in at least 60 minutes of moderate to vigorous activity per week, however survey results show that only 15% of children aged 15 in Lancashire are estimated to be reaching that level.
County Councillor Terry Aldridge, chairman of Lancashire County Council, said: “I've always been very active and go to the gym about three times a week – it makes a huge difference to me. Not only do you feel physically fitter, exercise also helps to focus your mind and it's a great way to socialise with others.
“The great thing about Your Mile Your Way is that it will encourage even more people to get active – I'm going to have a think about what I'm going to do for my mile.”
Dr Sakthi Karunanithi, director of public health for Lancashire County Council, said: “The figures show that we need to do more to encourage people, young and old, in every part of Lancashire to become more active.
“We’re hoping Your Mile Your Way Day on May 18 will become a catalyst for people across the county to commit to taking up more regular exercise. The health benefits for the individuals would be enormous.”
The Active Lives Survey (2015/16) estimates that 63.5% of the adult population of Lancashire are living with excess weight, significantly above the national estimate of 61.3%. This suggests there are over 600,000 adults in Lancashire with a weight problem.
Figures from QOF 2016/17 showed that there were 147,947 persons (aged 18+) recorded as living with obesity, accounting for 10.6% of the registered population.