Smooth moves from Hull health visitors to encourage healthy eating
31 July, 2015
On 1 August, a group of Hull Health Visitors from City Health Care Partnership CIC will be making smoothies with a bicycle to encourage healthy eating and active lifestyles in their local Hull community, as well as promote their TriHV Challenge to raise money to fund research into improving children’s lives for the Institute of Health Visiting (iHV) and also for their local charity Breathe for Cameron.
Visitors to the smoothie bike health visiting team in St Stephens Shopping Centre in Hull can try the smoothie making bike, learn about healthy eating and find out about the local children and young people’s health services available in Hull. Health visitors will also be on hand to give advice on key public health messages such as healthy weight, healthy nutrition and physical activity.
Health visitors are crucial in the sharing of public health information. They encourage healthy eating in childhood, to reduce obesity and the known illness that exists as a result of obesity – such as cardiovascular disease, poorer mental health and diabetes.
Melita Walker, Professional Development Officer at iHV and Health Visitor with City Health Care Partnership CIC, said: “The smoothie bike event really allows us as health visitors to fulfil our public health role by interacting with the community and acting as role models by keeping fit!”
The health visiting team with their “smoothie bike” (a stationary bike whose wheel rotations power a smoothie blender) will encourage members of the public to join them and “cycle” the 170 miles equivalent distance of the coast-to-coast Way of the Roses – a route that the team is cycling as part of their TriHV Challenge. Using only their pedal power, all “cyclists” will help make healthy smoothies which will then be available to the public - demonstrating how easy and cost-effective it can be to make healthy nutritious drinks at home. The Hull health visiting team are very grateful to Tesco St Stephens for kindly donating the fruit on the day.
For their TriHV Challenge 2015 to raise research funds for the Institute of Health Visiting, this determined group of gritty health visitors is completing a triathlon over three weekends which includes a swim, three relay teams competing in the Hull Marathon and ending with a 170 mile coast-to-coast cycle ride along the Way of the Roses, all the way from Morecombe in Lancashire to Bridlington in Yorkshire.
Melita, who is leading the national TriHV challenge, said: “The team in Hull have been training hard, none of them were cyclists before signing up to this challenge and I would just like to say how proud and honoured I am at being part of such an amazing team!”
Dr Cheryll Adams, Executive Director of the Institute of Health Visiting, said : “The Institute is absolutely thrilled to have such a fantastic team raising awareness of how health visitors can support parents to give their child a safe, happy and healthy childhood and in turn the brightest future. Hull health visitors have been wonderfully generous with their time and effort in supporting the iHV and we would like to say a very big thank you. We know how hard the team have been training and we wish them the very best of luck with the Way of the Roses Challenge.”
The money raised by the Hull health visiting team at the smoothie-making event in St Stephens Shopping Centre will be split between the iHV (to support research projects that will improve children’s lives) and Breathe for Cameron, a charity close to the Hull health visitors’ hearts.
