In November 2008, Thetford successfully bid for £900,000 of funding from the Department of Health for healthy lifestyle projects in the town. As just one of nine towns in England to be awarded the Healthy Town status, Thetford has devised a programme of individual projects and schemes to make it easier for people to be more active and eat well for a healthier future. Healthy Towns is part of the national Change4Life movement. For more information log on, and sign up, to www.nhs.uk/change4life.
The programme is also part of the overall vision supporting Breckland to become a healthy district through the provision of education, skills training, infrastructure provision and a creation of a healthy culture.
Following the formal end of the Department of Health support for Thetford in March 2011, due to the success of the programme, further funding was obtained from NHS Norfolk, Breckland Council, Moving Thetford Forward and the Breckland Partnership. This enabled the programme to continue into 2012 and expand into other Breckland towns. You can find out more about each of these towns by visitng their local websites by clicking the link ont he right of this page. Public Health continues to support the programme in these towns and we are now looking to take the Healthy Town appraoch into new areas.
Healthy Breckland is there for you, your families, neighbours and friends and wants to make a real difference by helping you to be more physically active and eat more healthily wherever you live, work, travel, play or learn. The long-term goal is to help everyone live healthily and happily and to reduce thier risk of developing diseases such as diabetes, cardiovascular disease and cancer.
If you want to find out more about what is happening in your area then contact Carol Doherty or Holly Gilbert at on: email – enquiries@healthybreckland.co.uk tel – 01603 638365.
Don’t forget to visit our Facebook page and follow us on twitter @healthytowns too! We would love to hear from you.