A Furness running club is preparing to host a running, health and wellbeing festival.
Walney Wind Cheetahs (WWC) Running Club will host the festival on Walney Island on Sunday September 25.
Mark Gunning, chair of WWC, said: “The Walney Wind Cheetahs are proud and excited, along with our main sponsors BAE and Circular 1 to be bringing this running and wellbeing festival to Walney Island and to help encourage our local community achieve a healthy lifestyle”.
The event is being sponsored by BAE Systems and workplace health and wellbeing management service Me&My Health, run by Circular1 Health, based near Carlisle.
The sponsorship has enabled the club to have three running events but also a BeWell Festival taking place at the same time.
Janet Garner, head of HR, skills and academy principal at BAE, said: “We’re always proud to support initiatives and events that benefit the community within which we operate, particularly when they promote health and wellbeing.”
Stuart MacLennan, chief executive of Circular 1 Health, said: “We are delighted to be sponsoring such an important event which helps develop links between businesses in the area and the local community.
“Our commitment to helping improve the health and wellbeing in Barrow and the wider area is a huge part of what we have built within the new proactive healthcare programme which is Me and My Health”
The three running events will include an all-inclusive one mile event at 9.30am where people can walk, jog or run. The route will be suitable for wheelchairs and assisted cycles. All participants will receive a bespoke commemorative medal.
It will be followed by 5km and 10km road races both starting at 10.30am. The 5km and 10km events will be chip timed and all finishers will receive a medal and T-shirt.
All three events are being supervised by event management team Fylde Coast Runners.
The BeWell Festival is being organised by Bay Health and Care Partners, Barrow Integrated Care Community, Mind In Furness and Cumbria County Council and will take place from 10am until 3pm.
There will be four themes to the day; Soul to Soul, Better Me, Food for Thought and Well Mind.
Maxine Baron, development lead for Barrow ICC, said: “It is an opportunity for people to come along and get various health checks, find out details about many aspects of physical and mental wellbeing, talk to health professionals and find information on various clubs and activities they can get involved with.
“There will also be an opportunity to take part in some of these activities. We would hope that all participants, supporters and spectators of the run events will take time to visit the BeWell Festival but, even if you are not interested in the running, please come along to call in and see what Walney, Barrow and the Furness area has to offer you.”
The day aims to increase the health and fitness levels of local people.
WWC, in association with Advantage! Raiders, will be putting on training programmes to help people get fit enough to complete the one mile and 5km events.
These will be 12-week programmes of progressive training, some of which will be purely walking and others which will include walking and short intervals of light jogging.
There will be training programmes available every day from Monday to Friday and at various times of the day at different venues.
People can attend one or more of the different venues depending upon their availability.
The programmes will begin in the week commencing Monday June 27.
Details of venues, days and times will be released soon.
Ian Jones, event coordinator, stated: “Personally I am delighted to be involved in bringing such an exciting event to Walney Island.
“I would like to thank our main sponsors for their support and also the huge team of dedicated people, covering many tasks, who are working very hard to make this event a success. We are all looking forward to seeing the people of Walney, Barrow and the surrounding areas enjoying themselves and welcoming visitors and tourists to the area”.
