Chipping Barnet MP Theresa Villiers this weekend joined Parkrun on a 5km route around Oak Hill Park in East Barnet as part of an activity to support Diabetes Awareness Week in Barnet between 12th-17th June.
Participants of all ages and abilities ran, jogged or walked around Oak Hill Park at 9am on Saturday, coping with high temperatures. This is a regular weekly event organised by volunteers and is entirely free. Similar activities take place in local parks around the world. Last year, Parkrun UK was awarded government funding to embark on a three-year project aimed at improving the health and wellbeing of disabled and excluded groups by increasing physical activity and social engagement.
Parkrun is supported locally by Barnet Council, with a number of local councillors joining the crowds on Saturday morning to promote awareness of the Council’s work to tackle diabetes. Other events took place earlier in the week to promote healthy living, including free blood sugar testing at Brent Cross Shopping Centre, which identified several diabetics who didn’t know they had the condition.
Theresa joined local Barnet councillor Caroline Stock at the event, who has been working with the Mayor of Barnet to get Barnet’s children running, as part of the Mayor of Barnet’s Golden Kilometre scheme. The scheme aims to encourage children of primary school age to run or walk a kilometre a day, leading to marked improvements to the health of the children.
Theresa said: “It was great to join a big group taking part in Parkrun at Oak Hill Park. I got round the 5km course with a combination of running and walking and hope to take part again in the future. Parkrun does excellent work to promote healthy living by encouraging people to get out into the open air and have a go at running in a friendly and sociable atmosphere. One of the big strengths of this initiative is that everyone is welcome, with people with very different levels of fitness taking part together, from fast runners to steady walkers.”
Cllr Caroline Stock said: “The support we had for the run was incredible, with over 200 taking part, of all sorts of ages and abilities. Parkrun is great, it helps people incorporate exercise into their week and become more active: nobody is judged, anyone can go out and keep fit. Participants went from tiny children to eighty year olds and I hope even more people get to enjoy taking part.”