Help us welcome 1,000 GPs on Parkrun GP Pledge Day

TV personality Dr Zoe Williams will be among more than 1,000 GPs and practice staff expected to take part in a special parkrun event on Saturday 1 June 2019, which will celebrate the first birthday of the hugely successful parkrun practice initiative.

The special event is also being supported by Author, GP and star of BBC One's Dr in the House, Dr Rangan Chatterjee, and Chair of the RCGP, Professor Helen Stokes-Lampard.

More than 800 general practices have now signed up to be a 'parkrun practice'; linking with their local parkrun event to promote the health and wellbeing of patients and staff, and create entire communities centred on wellness.

parkruns are volunteer-led 5k events that take place each Saturday morning across the UK and are open to walkers, runners and volunteers of all ages and abilities. parkruns are socially-focussed with the emphasis on regular participation rather than performance.

To celebrate the first anniversary of the parkrun practice initiative launched by parkrun and the Royal College of General Practitioners in June last year, the two organisations have teamed up to hold a national GP parkrun pledge day. The aim is to get as many general practice staff as possible to pledge in advance, to join thousands of walkers, runners and volunteers at parkrun events across the UK on the same day.

The GP parkrun pledge day is the first event of its type, and builds on the success of last year's celebration across hundreds of parkruns to mark the NHS's 70th birthday. That day saw more than 146,000 people take part in parkrun, with a 14% increase in the number of participants who were inactive when they registered and 9,000 people participating for the very first time.

On 1 June, general practice staff across the country are being encouraged to pledge to participate in a parkrun event and also to bring their patients, family and friends along to walk, run, volunteer or spectate.

It is hoped that this special day will raise awareness of parkrun across the health sector and help promote sustained participation by those who are least active or have health conditions.

Inactivity is a leading cause of premature illness and death in the UK, and GPs and their teams play a key role in empowering their patients to get more active and improve their health. Thousands of GP practice staff up and down the country, including Dr Andrew Boyd, the RCGP Clinical Champion for Physical Activity and Lifestyle, are encouraging patients to take part in parkrun to help prevent, treat or improve common conditions such as anxiety, depression, diabetes, cancer, heart disease and high blood pressure.

Andrew said: "parkrun provides an accessible, unintimidating local opportunity for patients and staff to increase their activity levels, and have fun doing it, all in the great outdoors – and for free."

For more details about GP parkrun pledge day click here and to find parkruns taking place across Leicestershire & Rutland click here.

(Source & Image: Parkrun)