Great Lever nurse holds own Couch to 5K scheme to encourage healthy living

Jacinta Yates, who works at Great Lever Practice, began holding regular sessions every Saturday at Leverhulme Park for around 10 participants.

The idea behind the programme was organised by Ms Yates to encourage people to improve the physical and mental health of people at the practice.

Ms Yates, who lives in Sunny Bank Road, Whitefield, said: “This is just something I have done to try and get patients to get active.

“It is just to encourage a lifestyle change by helping them to lose weight and it can improve all aspects of health, including mental health.”

The 44-year-old’s event was aimed at targetting patients of any level and encouraging them to see if they could go from not running at all to being able to do 5K.

And after her eight-week programme concluded a few weeks ago, she is hoping to encourage other nurses in the area to see if they can run similar programmes.

She said: “I just think it would be great if more people did it. It is all about the patients and their wellbeing at the end of the day.

“I was doing it for about eight weeks and hopefully some of the patients will carry on doing it themselves. I think I had altogether about 10 patients taking part at every session who progressed from walking to jogging.

“They have all worked really hard and have made great progress since we started.

“A lot of people have turned up and I only did it for two months but I think many of them will keep it up.”

Ms Yates herself only began running 18 months ago, training with Prestwich Athletic Club.

And she has already managed to compete in her first Manchester Marathon this year. She said: “The marathon was amazing but it might be a while before I do another one. But it was brilliant. I loved the experience and the support from the people watching was just amazing.”

The Couch to 5K initiative is part of an NHS drive to get people to be more physically active. For more information, go to nhs.uk/Livewell