12,000 people take part in County Durham health initiative

12:00pm Saturday 22nd September 2012 in News By Tony Kearney

A NUMBER of organisations have joined forces to celebrate the success of a health and fitness programme.

More than 12,000 people have taken part in the Changing the Physical Activity Landscape programme since it was launched in February 2010. It was established to reduce the risk of heart disease and to get people active and healthy.

Some of the 23 organistions taking part in the programme came together at County Hall, in Durham City, yesterday.

Andrew Power, physical activity manager of County Durham Sport, which manages the programme, said: The programme has become big. Were expecting 14,000 people to have come through the programme by the end of it.

Weve got a good spread of individual organisations here today and, with six months left of the programme, were trying to sustain their work for the future.

Dawn Phillips, public health consultant for NHS County Durham, was present to see the ongoing work.

She said: Were identifying risks. The goal is to get people active and able to achieve and maintain a healthy weight.

If we invest now we can prevent ill health. We have fewer people going to their GPs since this programme began.

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12,000 people take part in County Durham health initiative