With May being National Walking Month, WPA staff have set themselves a target to walk 5,000 miles, approximately 17 miles each and WPA will make a donation to the British Heart Foundation for each mile walked.
The new track around WPA’s wildflower meadow will be well used while walks to and from work and getting outside at the weekend are being encouraged.
To spur the team along, there will be competitions between individuals and teams across the WPA. To encourage walking elsewhere, neighbouring businesses on the Blackbrook Business Park are aware and Greenbrook, the Blackbrook Businesses’ environmental group are organising a litter pick on May 5. Further afield, WPA will be encouraging customers and intermediaries to do some extra miles and promoting the initiative to the 200 schools that its foundation has supported over the last three years.
WPA has chosen the British Heart Foundation because heart and circulatory disease is the leading cause of death in the world and physical cardiovascular fitness keeps bones and muscle healthy reducing the risk of developing a stroke or high blood pressure.
Nathan Irwin, WPA’s Chief Executive, said: “With walking being so good for everyone’s mental, social and physical health while making the most of natural daylight and fresh air, it is arguably one of the most socially accessible and inclusive forms of exercise available.
“We are consciously not asking for donations, we just want to help everyone be a bit healthier and have some fun doing it.”
Victoria Carswell, fundraising manager at the British Heart Foundation, added: “We are incredibly grateful to WPA for choosing to support our work with their epic challenge.
“For more than 60 years, the public’s generosity has funded BHF research that has turned ideas that once seemed like ‘science fiction’ into treatments and cures that save lives every day. But millions of people are still waiting for the next breakthrough.
“It is only with donations from organisations like WPA that we can keep our research going and discover the treatments and cures of the future.”
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