GO Run For Fun initiative to get primary school-aged pupils active launches

GO Run For Fun initiative to get primary school-aged pupils active launches

Children’s running organisation GO Run For Fun has announced ambitious plans to get children aged between five and 10 more active in 2018.

The organisation, which is run in partnership with the Great Run series, aims to get a total of 55,000 children running by the end of 2018.

Since starting in 2013, GO Run For Fun has already welcomed over 200,000 young runners across its events in the UK, France, Germany, Belgium, Switzerland, Italy, Norway, Mexico and the USA.

As well as aiming to deliver 20 mass running events across the UK, GO Run For Fun has plans to introduce a full Health & Wellbeing Programme to support the initiative.

The organisation is also continuing to focus on its global reach, delivering free running events across nine countries this year.

Children’s health has been hitting UK headlines recently, with Public Health England suggesting 22.6 per cent of children aged four to five and 34.3 per cent of children aged 10-11 are overweight or obese.

GO Run For Fun wants to challenge these statistics by introducing running as a fun, free activity, where children can enjoy themselves and achieve something, all while taking part in physical exercise.

The organisation will also provide a Health & Wellbeing Programme alongside each UK event, to educate young children about the importance of diet and regular exercise.

Kate Atkinson, youth event and education executive, said: “We are very excited to be kick-starting our 2018 GO Run For Fun programme in Humber; a new location for us and a great place to launch our new Health & Wellbeing Programme.

“We will be delivering Special Agent training to pupils, setting them the six-week mission to get their school healthy and active. We will then deliver a mass participation fun run where we hope to get as many children running from all the schools that have been involved. We are very much looking forward to the year ahead and cannot wait to get lots of children up and running!”

The first UK running event is planned for 24 April in Humber and 24 local schools are set to participate, with many more on the waiting list.

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