National Volunteer Week (1 – 7 June)
1 June 2010
Healthy walking founder congratulates local volunteers who monitor, mentor and encourage new groups
Dr William Bird the founder of the Walking for Health schemes in England is just one of the people congratulating volunteer walk leaders across the region.
At two regional celebrations, on 10 June at Worcester Racecourse and 22 June at Wolverhampton Light House Media Centre, organisers of the Walking for Health Scheme will thank all those who give their time to help make local people healthier and happier. The event is open to all volunteer walk leaders in the West Midlands and is free. There are currently more than 2,000 trained volunteer walk leaders in the West Midlands, leading almost 5,000 regular walkers (not all volunteer leaders are available for walks at any one time).
Volunteers who have still not booked their place should contact Julie Smith on 0300 060 3969 or e-mail Julie.smith@naturalengland.org.uk.
As well as celebrating the success of the scheme locally, volunteers will find out more about training available and about the origins of the scheme.
Dr Bird, who is an Oxfordshire GP, developed the concept of health walks in 1995 and established the first health walk scheme for his patients. He then worked with the Countryside Agency and the British Heart Foundation to establish the Walking the Way to Health Initiative (now WfH) and has been involved in this field ever since.
“Seventy per cent of people in England are inactive and this needs to change. Walking is a fundamental way of maintaining physical activity and our eventual aim is to give every GP in the country access to a local WfH scheme so that they can all refer patients to take part in an accredited walking scheme.”
“The success of Walking for Health is directly linked to its location, the ‘natural environment’, which has been proven to give people staying power when it comes to exercise,” he said.
There are already around 6,500 regular walkers with WfH across the West Midlands and this is set to double by 2012. The Department of Health is currently working with Natural England to support the expansion of the scheme and encourage more walkers and more walk leaders. Volunteers receive full training, free of charge.
Dawn Griffiths who leads Natural England’s Health team in the region said:
“Walks are key to staying fit and active, but our participants get much more than that from regular exercise. They make new friends, they begin to appreciate and enjoy the natural environment around them and they develop a sense of achievement, which often leads to other activities. GPs often advise regular walking after illness and there is growing evidence that it works on a variety of levels.”
“Childhood obesity, coronary heart disease stress and mental health problems can all be reduced and active adults halve their risk of dying early from heart disease but its vital that the walks are led and monitored, otherwise people either don’t progress or worse still, give up. But we couldn’t run the walks without trained volunteer walk leaders to monitor, mentor and encourage new walkers.”
“With the ever growing pressure on our health services what better way of improving the health of people in the West Midlands.”
Walks are all under an hour, midweek and at weekends, some of them in towns and some in more rural locations. WfH schemes collect basic data from a simple health questionnaire for each new walker.
To locate your nearest walk or to find our more about volunteering locally visit www.wfh.naturalengland.org.uk
For more information contact Judie Kellie on 01299 896 555/ 07973 744161 judie@jkpr.co.uk or Dean Gallen on Dean.G.Gallen@naturalengland.org.uk
-ends-
Notes to Editors
Natural England is the government’s independent adviser on the natural environment. Established in 2006 our work is focused on enhancing England’s wildlife and landscapes and maximising the benefits they bring to the public.
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