Paralympic medallist supports St Helens Borough buddyboost challenge

Article date: 12 April 2022

Sammi Kinghorn is a wheelchair racer who won silver and bronze medals over 100m and 400m at the Tokyo Olympics last year and she will be taking part in buddyboost next month.

Active St Helens, a project from St Helens Borough Council designed to get people active, has brought the scheme back to the borough after more than 450 people successfully signing up people across the borough in February to take part in activity with their friends, families or workmates.

The programme works by committing to 26 minutes of exercise with the aim of completing 26 days at your choice throughout the 31 days of the month.

Sammi, who has also taken gold in 100m and 200m wheelchair racing at the World Championships in 2017, said "Two of the things that I love about buddyboost are that you can do any sort of activity you want - for me that could be anything from just going out for a push in my chair to a tough weights session - and the fact that you've got everyone else who's taking part cheering you on in the buddyboost community feed. I know St Helens had a brilliant challenge last year and I can't wait to join in with this one."

Ruth du Plessis, Director of Public Health, added: "The programme buddyboost really does harness the power of supporting each other to get active and is all about us encouraging each other to move more. And when we say active that can mean anything from taking a walk, gardening, and chair-based exercise right through to playing sports, running, swimming or cycling. The 26-minute doesn't have to be all in one go, for example you could do 10 minutes in your lunchtime and then 16 minutes in the evening. And if you're stuck for ideas there will be plenty of online suggestions from the Active St Helens team to help you hit your 26 minutes.

"It's really important that we all find ways to get active as doing so really boosts not just our physical health but also our mental wellbeing. And the important thing is that by completing buddyboost we know that if you make a change to your lifestyle and continue that change of the course of the month it means you are creating lasting habits that will help you continue to follow your new, more active lifestyle beyond May and build in greater benefits for your health."

The programme allows you to sign up as an individual or as a team, where you can encourage each other to smash your goals.

To sign up visit www.activesthelens.co.uk/buddyboost