"Greater Manchester Moving aims to positively change the lives of people across Greater Manchester through physical activity and sport."
Mayor Andy Burnham
Greater Manchester's Mayor is leading by example by taking part in this weekend’s Asics Greater Manchester marathon, on Sunday 7 April.
Mayor Andy Burnham will tackle half of the course, teaming up with GM Moving’s Strategic Lead Hayley Lever who will run the second half. With one in three working adults failing to meet the recommended amount of activity each day, the marathon tag-team are pulling on their running shoes in a bid to inspire us all to move more every day. The Great Manchester Marathon encourages teams of up to four runners to compete, making it more accessible to everyone to have a go.
Hoping his participation will motivate residents across Greater Manchester to become more active and set their own movement-based challenges, Mayor Andy Burnham said: “Greater Manchester Moving aims to positively change the lives of people across Greater Manchester through physical activity and sport. Getting moving is a key way to keep healthy and to live and age well. It’s important to me that as a city-region we implement initiatives that improve the health and wellbeing of all our residents.
“Running half the Greater Manchester Marathon on Sunday will be my last long run before I tackle the Boston Marathon on 15 April, where I will be raising funds for charities set up by some of the families who lost loved-ones in the 2017 Manchester Arena attack.
“I want to show how Manchester stands with Boston, Christchurch, Pittsburgh and all the cities around the world which have suffered from appalling acts of hate in recent years. The only way to beat this evil is come together around the world in celebration of our equality, diversity and common humanity.
“It’s great that on Sunday I’ll be passing the baton at the halfway point to Hayley, showing how accessible and fun the Greater Manchester Marathon really is.”
GM Moving’s Strategic Lead, Hayley, who says the aim is to ensure 75% of people in Greater Manchester are active or fairly active by 2025, said: “The GM Moving ambition is all about getting people active, no matter what their current fitness levels are.
“If you’d like to train for a marathon that’s fantastic, but for others going on a walk at the weekend or swimming once a week will be more enjoyable, achievable and sustainable. Our message is simply ‘get moving’ in any way that suits you, it all counts.”
Government guidelines say that to live a healthy life and protect against diseases like cancer, dementia and heart disease, people over 18 needs to exercise (move) moderately – raise their heart beat and breathing rate - for 150 minutes or more a week, which is just twenty minutes a day. Children need to do 60 minutes of moderate exercise a day.
If running a marathon isn’t their thing, Greater Manchester’s residents can increase their activity levels during the 2019 Greater Manchester Walking Festival. As part of the festival, which lasts for the whole of May, there are 400 FREE guided walks across the region, taking in towns, cities parks, canals and riversides, as well as the hills and moors.
To find out more information about the walking festival please go to: www.GMWalking.co.uk.
You can read more about the Mayor’s participation in the 2019 Boston Marathon, and donate, by visiting https://www.justgiving.com/crowdfunding/burnham-boston.
