Tens of thousands of people across England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland are expected to ‘parkrun for the NHS’ at their local parkrun events on Saturday 8 July and junior parkrun events on Sunday 9 July.
The events will mark the 75th anniversary of the founding of the National Health Service, and emphasise the important link between physical activity and health for people and communities across the UK.
'Improved health and wellbeing' is a key outcome within the Sport for Development Coalition’s #OpenGoal framework, which has been co-designed by members of the Coalition and aims to demonstrate the contribution of sport for development to key policy priorities for Government. Read the first #OpenGoal annual report.
Chrissie Wellington OBE, Global Head of Health and Wellbeing at parkrun, told the Coalition: “‘parkrun for the NHS’ is an exciting partnership between parkrun UK and the NHS to celebrate the NHS’s 75th anniversary and showcase parkrun as a safe and inclusive space for all ages, abilities and backgrounds to be active and social in the outdoors.
"We want to encourage everyone to join in the fun by walking, jogging, running or volunteering, whether it is their first time at parkrun or they have been many times before. Together we can make this a 75th birthday celebration to remember!”
On the weekend of July 8 and 9, NHS teams will be taking part in parkrun events and signposting to all the ways communities can help support the service, for example joining the NHS Organ Donor Register, giving blood or signing up to research programmes. As well as celebrating the NHS’s 75th with ‘parkrun for the NHS’, parkrun has a partnership with the Royal College of GPs, which sees more than 1,700 GP practices across the UK committed to signposting patients and staff to parkrun to help improve both mental and physical health.
It is the second time parkrun UK and the NHS have worked together in this way. In 2018, for the 70th birthday of the NHS, an incredible UK-wide celebration was held which saw more than 146,000 people getting involved.
Professor Sir Stephen Powis, National Medical Director at NHS England, said: “As well as being a great way to thank NHS staff and volunteers during the NHS’s 75th year, we hope ‘parkrun for the NHS’ will help encourage people to consider being more active. We know physical activity is great for your body and mind. Some is good – more is better still.”
The #OpenGoal framework seeks to demonstrate how, in a difficult financial climate, projects and programmes across the Coalition’s UK-wide network can provide multiple returns on investment across policy priorities, and potentially help to save public cost in terms of improving wellbeing and helping to prevent rising costs around health, crime or unemployment. These costs can be increased in disadvantaged or deprived areas, which Coalition interventions predominantly target.
For more information about ‘parkrun for the NHS’ including how to get involved and find your local parkrun, visit www.england.nhs.uk/parkrun
