Member Article

North East stepping up to tackle obesity

As part of this year’s National Obesity Awareness Week, people across the region are being urged to consider sport and active recreation as one of the many enjoyable and simple ways to remain healthy and avoid becoming overweight.

This week intends to highlight the health, social and psychological problems arising from being overweight, and Sport England North East is asking people to help tackle this issue by incorporating physical activity into their everyday lives, and leading a more active lifestyle all year round. One project, County Durham Primary Care Trust’s ‘Engaging Young Women’, aims to tackle obesity and increase participation of young women aged 11-16.

Kimberley King, health improvement facilitator with the project, said: “The issue of obesity must be addressed from a young age and research has shown that young women quite often need additional support and encouragement to get into sport. “After receiving feedback from almost 200 young women in the Sedgefield area, our principal aim was to overcome the barriers they felt were preventing them from participating in sport, such as lack of transport, low self-esteem and the desire to participate in sports not always offered at school like rock climbing, dance and trampolining. “This project to increase participation into sport is one of many initiatives taking place in the North East and will no doubt play an integral role in combating the ongoing problem of obesity.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Ruth Mitchell .