Tone Helps Taunton Walk Its Way To Fitness

A Taunton walking scheme is celebrating its fifth birthday with the news that the total number of yearly participants recorded has increased by over 3,000 since the scheme began in 2005 – and it is now launching a new-look programme of walks for summer 2010 to encourage even more people to take part.

The Walk Well in Taunton project is run by Tone Leisure as part of a Department of Health-funded scheme by Natural England, designed to quadruple the number of people who take part in health walking on a regular basis. It is a volunteer-led scheme that provides regular organised walks within the community with the aim of improving the health and wellbeing of the participants.

Tone, a social enterprise and charitable trust which operates Taunton Deane District Council’s leisure facilities as well as providing sports and health development services, has released figures that show 3,385 participants were recorded between 2009 and 2010 compared to 254 five years ago. The average number of participants per walk has also risen from 11 to 31 in the same period, with the number of walks provided increasing from 24 to 110.

“Walking for health is recognised as being one of the most successful physical activities in improving the health and fitness of individuals,” said Melissa McCarthy, Health Development Officer at Tone. “As a social enterprise, Tone is committed to improving the wellbeing of communities and helping individuals maintain a healthy lifestyle. By operating Walk Well in Taunton we’re aiming to make exercise accessible to everybody, regardless of age or fitness level and we’re thrilled that the numbers of participants have grown at such a rate.”

The health walks have traditionally been short walks of two to three miles, which normally take up to an hour, but this year Tone’s team of volunteer leaders have developed new shorter options which take 20 minutes as well as longer walks which take up to two and a half hours. This variation will ensure that those new to walking can ease into the scheme gently and those whose fitness has improved from doing the hour-long walks can keep challenging themselves. It also means that people can increase and decrease their level of participation depending on their health.

“Our volunteer leaders are a fantastic bunch who all contribute to the success of the scheme,” added Melissa. “All 12 started off by getting referred to Tone by health professionals so that they could introduce physical activity into their lifestyles for health benefits. They’ve made such a transformation they’re now leaders, providing inspiration for others in similar positions to do the same. One volunteer in particular, Joy Boaden, is a real driving force, maintaining communication between leaders and walkers, developing and documenting new routes and identifying potential new leaders. Both the leaders and the walkers enjoy many social benefits from the project as well as fitness ones – we think this is why many of the walks often start and end at cafes!”

Walk Well in Taunton is one of 500-plus similar schemes throughout the UK. It provides four to five structured walks per week along various routes around Taunton. They are open to anyone with an interest in group walking as a way to improve health and wellbeing. For more information visit http://www.toneleisure.co.uk or http://www.wfh.naturalengland.org.uk, or call Tone on 01823 273084.