Olympian joins UHSM at Let's Dance event
“I call exercise a vital necessity and the key to living a healthy lifestyle. As a Wythenshawe Ambassador, I’m delighted to support this initiative within the community to encourage everyone to get more active. I believe everyone should exercise, but it doesn’t have to be strenuous to make a difference.”
Ian Jones
Olympian
Olympic medal winner Ian Jones took a break from training for London 2012 to be guest of honour when more than a hundred staff, schoolchildren, visitors and some patients took to the car park at UHSM on Friday 26 March for the Great Hospital Let's Dance.
Ian, who won two bronze medals in the Beijing Paralympics in 2008 and is an ambassador for Wythenshawe, was joined by UHSM’s Chief Executive Julian Hartley, to encourage people to get fit and active.
The Great Hospital Let's Dance! was organised to support the national campaign to get people to exercise, and we were supported by the ‘Pulse’ dance company from nearby Newall Green High School, who put together a dance routine and taught the gathered audience the moves.
Julian Hartley explains how the fun event had a serious message. “We know that with instances of obesity on the increase in the North West, people need to be encouraged to eat more healthily and exercise more. This is the first in a series of initiatives we are planning here at UHSM to engage with staff and the community we serve.”
The event follows on from the Great Hospital Hand Wash when more than 1,000 people got together in the car park and within hospital wards to practice hand hygiene techniques as part of UHSM’s highly successful infection prevention campaign. Sixty thousand women in Greater Manchester are needed to volunteer to take part in the world’s largest study of its kind to predict breast cancer risk.