Page 34 - The Land Trust Annual Review 2019

Health Land Trust Annual Review 2019

The Land Trust is extremely proud of the work
we do to improve the physical and mental
wellbeing of our communities and this is
reflected in the activities we deliver on our sites.

‘Laughter is the
best medicine’
– volunteers at
Countess of
Chester Country
Park enjoying a
laughter workshop.

Annual health theme Parkrun

This year the Land Trust’s focus was on mental The popular weekly running event parkrun is now
health. One in four people in the UK will suffer from held on two of our sites with hundreds of runners
a mental health illness each year and this number is taking part in the free 5k run at the Countess of
increasing, putting a strain on our health services, Chester Country Park and Frickley Country Park
costing businesses millions of working days a year every Saturday morning.
and having a significant impact on the economy. Over 8,000 runners have taken part in Chester’s
The increased awareness of mental health issues in event, with an average of 274 enthusiastic visitors
the wider public due to the work of charities like Mind taking part every week. Their record attendance was
and social media campaigns such as Mental Health in January 2019 when 614 people took part.
Awareness Week has been pivotal to changing the Frickley Country Park’s parkrun was established Thousands
of runners
conversation around mental wellbeing. by members of the Friends of group in January 2019 enjoy Parkrun
on our sites
The good news is that there is increasing amounts and has since hosted over 1,000 runners with an at Countess
of research evidencing that spending time outdoors average of 111 participants per week. This route is of Chester
and Frickley.
in well managed green space improves mental famous for its challenging hills and fantastic views.
wellbeing. At the Land Trust we wanted to play our Its biggest attendance so far has been 308.
part and the activities we have delivered across our
portfolio over the last 12 months have proven very
beneficial to participants mental and physical health.

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