Return of Health Walks in Mendip and West Somerset Statement

Health walks returned with great success in Mendip and West Somerset at the start of July. We are now several weeks in and have more walks and walkers returning each week out enjoying our beautiful county.

Our health walks will look a little different for the time being, with extra hygiene and social distancing measures in place to protect walkers and walk leaders. Please see our information on how walkers can make the return as safe as possible, with our safety infographic and participant guidance.

Booking is essential, and walker numbers may be restricted depending on the walk. Our phased return will includes walks in Dulverton, Minehead and other locations in West Somerset and Frome in Mendip. We hope to able to confirm shortly the return of Glastonbury and Shepton Mallet.

For further information about the phased return of health walks in Mendip and West Somerset, please contact our scheme co-ordinators, who will happy to provide further information.

For West Somerset, contact Tiffany Wood on 07722567244 or twood@sasp.co.uk

For Mendip, contact Jo Smith on 07855 283855 or jsmith@sasp.co.uk

It's a gentle walk done on a regular basis for well-being. It can help you to feel good, to have more energy, to sleep better and to manage your weight. There are so many benefits from health walking - we're sure you'll see a difference in yourself even after your first walk!

Would you like to find out more about walking or where you can take part in Somerset?

Click on the links below to see what's going on in your area.

You can walk 1,000 steps in around 10 minutes. Pedometers are a fun way to keep track of your walking. Use a pedometer to work out your average daily steps and then start adding extra steps.

Being active can:

• Help you lose weight or maintain a healthy weight
• Strengthen your bones
• Reduce stress levels and symptoms of depression and anxiety
• Improve your sleep

Somerset Health Walks wouldn't exist without our fantastic volunteer walk leaders, who lead health walks taking place around the country. As a volunteer walk leader, you would be helping people in your community to get active and healthy, providing vital support that they otherwise might not get.

As a walk leader, your responsibilities will include:

• Walking health walk routes beforehand (advance preparation) to make sure you know them.
• Making sure paperwork like registration forms and registers are completed (and in some cases added to the database).
• Leading and managing walks, usually jointly with other walk leaders.
• Trouble shooting and dealing with problems on walks, with the support of your scheme coordinator.
• Attending occasional walk leaders' meetings and refresher training.
• You could also be asked to help your scheme coordinator develop and risk assess new walking routes.

Our walk leaders love their roles and tell us fantastic stories about how much they enjoy helping others to get active and get walking. But in case that doesn't convince you, here are some of the other great benefits:

• Full training with a nationally recognised and well respected scheme.
• Ongoing support and guidance from your scheme coordinator and Walking for Health.
• Access to Walking for Health resources and equipment to help you fulfil your role.
• Opportunity to meet new people including like-minded volunteers.
• Opportunity to discover more of your local area and spend time in the outdoors.
• Opportunity to be more physically active yourself.

Most walks are short (around an hour or less) so including travelling, preparation and paperwork leading a single walk close to home typically takes around 2.5-3 hours, plus recces and occasional meetings and refresher training. Typical schemes expect their leaders to attend at least one walk a month, depending on the programme and the numbers of leaders they have.