Press Release: Travelwise Walking Challenge

People in the West Midlands are being challenged to take a step in the right direction - for the good of their health.

The TravelWise Walking Challenge starts on September 21 and encourages people to walk at least 10,000 steps per day, five days a week.

The four-week challenge aims to improve physical activity and hopes to attract both individuals and businesses to take part.

TravelWise has said it will send hundreds of participants free pedometers so they can monitor their steps.

The group will also send a form for individuals to keep a note of their daily steps and, at the end of the challenge, the teams and individuals who have made the most progress will receive awards.

Last week, it was revealed that £64m is being spent by the NHS a year tackling obesity and ‘inactive lifestyles’ in the region.

Joanne Rainbow, Travel Plan Co-ordinator for TravelWise, believes the recent figures highlight the need for people to improve their physical activity – and says the Walking Challenge is a good way for individuals to steadily improve their health.

“A lot of people probably aren’t walking as much as they should be, partly because of the world we live in now,” Joanne said.

“It’s very easy to jump in a car to go to the shops, or to work, when you probably don’t need to.

“This challenge is about helping people see how much walking they are doing a day, and trying to steadily improve that over a month.

“If someone ends up walking one or two thousands extra steps a day by the end of the month, then they will definitely notice the difference and realise that increasing exercise is quite simple.

“We’re not just aiming for individuals – we want to encourage businesses or organisations to take part and enter teams – if they do that, then people can urge each other on and improve together.

“There are 1000 free pedometers available when people sign up, in order to make it easy to monitor the steps count, but they are already going fast!

“Hopefully it will help people to set targets every day and when the month’s challenge ends on October 19, everyone will have been successful.”

To register as an individual or a team, email joanne.rainbow@coventry.gov.uk with your name, company name, email address and contact number – or contact your local TravelWise officer.

For more information, call Joanne on 02476 831342.