Getting active

Abbeycroft Leisure - those nice people who run the gym at Bury Leisure Centre - are supporting me on this fitness challenge and the Beat It! appeal.

It was back in June that Abbeycroft launched a borough-wide campaign to promote the benefits of physical activity on wellbeing and quality of life called Active St Eds. At the time, I could not have imagined I would be part of that...

Now that campaign has been extended to patients and visitors at West Suffolk Hospital in Bury St Edmunds.

Posters and the new ‘Active St Eds Inspire Me’ magazine will now go on display in staff areas, the Time Out restaurant, occupational health and outpatients area.

Michelle Banfield-Curran, Abbeycroft’s Partnership Manager, said: “We want to thank West Suffolk Hospital for its support of this very important campaign to raise awareness of the benefits of physical activity, not only on fitness but on people’s general well being.

“It is our hope that a lasting legacy from last year’s Olympic and Paralympic Games will be that more people in St Edmundsbury take up some form of activity and that the poster campaign, featuring real life stories from our community will inspire people and show them how their friends, neighbours and colleagues did it.”

To help measure the success of the campaign, a new ‘Active Points’ scheme was introduced at Abbeycroft Leisure where people can collect points every time they take part in an activity at Abbeycroft’s Centres in Bury St Edmunds and Haverhill or at one of their many events and activities held in the community, which can be redeemed against 400 retailers online. 

The campaign ‘Active St Eds’ web portal www.acleisure.com/active-st-eds features real life stories of people from St Edmundsbury whose lives have been improved by physical activity, tips, articles written by local healthcare experts, and details of how to sign up for Active Points.

Claire Webb, Health and Wellbeing Coordinator at West Suffolk Hospital NHS Trust, said: “We are delighted to support the Active St Eds Campaign, we take the health and wellbeing of our staff very seriously at West Suffolk Hospital and we’re actively encouraging them to sign up. It is so important to maintain a healthy lifestyle and to keep fit and active; hopefully Active St Eds will encourage more local people to increase the amount of exercise they do each week.”

Abbeycroft manages both Haverhill and Bury St Edmunds Leisure Centres in partnership with St Edmundsbury Borough Council and delivers much of the Sports Development and outreach work in the Borough.

Did you know, too, that Abbeycroft Leisure opened its first budget gym in the heart of Ipswich in Suffolk in January 2011, offering state-of-the-art workout stations for just £12.99. Abbeycroft is one of a handful of leisure trusts in the UK to branch out and develop this affordable fitness model.