May is National Walking Month and on Thursday 8 May, Westbank Community Health and Care held a special guided Health Walk on the Quay in Exeter that was open for anyone to join. 

National Walking Month is a time to encourage and celebrate the benefits of walking for both our physical and mental health. This is something Westbank has been doing for more than two decades. In fact, our extensive programme of Health Walks will celebrate its 21st anniversary at the start of September, and we have lots lined up to mark the occasion, including five days of sponsored walks of varying difficulty from locations across Devon back to our charity’s base in Exminster, more on all that at a later date!

Westbank’s Health Walks programme grew from small beginnings and continues to develop. We now offer an extensive range of free-of-charge, organised morning walks at more than twenty locations across Exeter and Devon, which can all be reached by public transport. But we’re not resting on our laurels. In recent months we have been working hard to expand the programme to provide even more walks in more parts of Devon for all abilities and add new ‘walk and talks’, aimed at groups of people who face similar social problems or health conditions.

We currently have about 70 Volunteer Health Walk leaders, without whom we couldn’t deliver this service. The walks they lead are graded from 1 to 3 in terms of difficulty. Anyone can turn up and join a walk – they’re free, fun and friendly and end with a visit to a cafe or community facility for a cup of tea or coffee and a chance to chat with your fellow walkers. For many people, the social side of the walk is as important, if not more important than the steps they clock up.

Recently, we have introduced a number of new ad hoc walks, including several over the festive season when people who live alone can find it particularly challenging to be on their own. In April, we organised a one-off walk along Exeter Quay for Carers and another with St Thomas Medical Group in Exeter, which is predominantly for home-educated children and their families to help them engage with others who homeschool.

In the near future we’re planning to trial a men-only walk from Exminster, which we hope to get up and running in May. This will be a dog-friendly late afternoon/ evening walk, probably finishing with a drink at a local pub or at our Community Hub in Exminster. This walk will be a departure for us because all of our other walks take place early in the day. We hope that by mixing up the timing of these men's walks, it will open them up to those who are still in employment and who wouldn’t otherwise be able to take part. We’re also exploring the idea of a mother and toddler group in a part of Exeter where we don’t currently have any walks.

All our walks are risk-assessed and mapped to a certain degree and we rely on volunteers to do that. So, we would love to hear from you if that’s something you would be interested in helping us with. 

We like to lead by example at Westbank and hold a short walk every Tuesday lunchtime in Exminster that we encourage members of staff to join. We know that just 30-minutes stretching your legs in the company of others and getting some fresh air can make a big difference.  

Why not take a look at the walks we offer and see if there’s one that works for you? Full details can be found here: www.westbank.org.uk/healthwalks

 

This article was first published in The Moorlander.