Workers from across Suffolk have walked the equivalent of 7.5 times round Britain’s coast in just four weeks during a special challenge designed to boost health in the workplace.

The Healthy Ambitions Suffolk million steps competition, which ended last week, saw teams of five workmates from businesses across the county challenged to walk one million steps in four weeks. A total of 209 teams, made up of 1,045 individuals, registered for the challenge, with just under half (43%) covering the distance.

The three teams finishing top of the leaderboard smashed through the target by clocking up more than two million steps each. Winners “Club Foot”, who were from BT, covered a total of 2.76m steps and will receive a Wii Fit for use in the workplace as their prize.

Second placed team “Porters R Us”, from Ipswich Hospital’s nuclear medicine department, recorded 2.74m steps, while “Racing Dares On” from Customer Service Direct, finished third with 2.1m steps.

Between them, all of the teams who took part recorded a massive 166,934,738 steps, which is the equivalent of 83,468 miles or 7.5 times the length of Britain’s coastline.

Pete Cowburn, team leader of runners up Porters R Us, was full of praise for the challenge, saying: “The million steps challenge not only provided an opportunity for people to improve their daily exercise regime in and out of the workplace, but also brought them closer together in their respective teams working towards a common goal. It was fun and beneficial.”

Rebecca Hams, Healthy Ambitions Suffolk project officer, said: “We are delighted with the response we received to the million steps challenge. Lots of teams from across the county took part, which was great for encouraging healthy competition and gave the whole event a real buzz.


“Although the challenge was designed to be fun, we also wanted it to have a serious message by highlighting the importance of staying active in the workplace while encouraging people to make small changes which can have a big impact on overall health.


“We plan to continue working with the businesses who took part in the challenge, offering them advice and guidance on further changes they could make to promote health and wellbeing among their staff, in turn reducing sickness absence and increasing productivity. We are also hoping to arrange more challenges in the future to help Suffolk’s workplaces get even healthier.”

For more information about the support which Healthy Ambitions Suffolk can offer to businesses, visit www.healthyambitionssuffolk.nhs.uk or email fit for work coordinator [email protected]