Manchester nurses encouraged to take part in local parkrun to mark International Nurses Day

Lynsey, Deputy Director of Nursing, Quality, and AHPs at Pennine Care NHS Foundation Trust, said: “Our aim is to make parkrun really inclusive – it’s not about us all going off and running as fast as we can.

“It’s about going together and having that celebration of our nursing and midwifery professions.

“We should be proud of the job we do and taking part in parkrun on 11 May is a great opportunity to celebrate that.

“Last year, I participated in parkrun for NHS75, celebrating the NHS with all my colleagues – it was such a good day, with a mix of seasoned parkrunners and people new to parkrun.

“For International Nurses Day (IND) this year, I’m planning to join Oldham parkrun. We’ve made a really big deal of IND and tried to get as many people as possible involved from our organisation.”

We know physical activity can help improve your mental health and wellbeing. Also, there’s still a lot of stigma around needing support, or having conversations about that or how you’re feeling. Sometimes it’s the conversations I have with my friends while running that help me get through tricky times.

The Chief Nursing Officers and Chief Midwifery Officers of the UK have joined parkrun in encouraging nurses and midwives to register for their local parkrun event and take part on certain days to mark International Day of the Midwife (5th May) and International Nurses Day.

Anyone can register for parkrun and take part in an event on Saturday 11 May, with NHS colleagues encouraged to wear NHS blue or fancy dress and share social media posts on the day.

parkrun’s mission is to transform health and happiness by empowering people to come together, to be active and to be social outdoors in their community.

Health Partnerships Lead at parkrun UK and Royal college of GPs Lifestyle and Physical activity lead, Dr Hussain Al-Zubaidi, said: “Nurses are such a vital part of the NHS workforce, prioritising their wellbeing is paramount.

“These parkrun events are a chance to embrace movement, community, and nature and offer nurses nationwide a joyful celebration, as well as a collective ‘thank you’ from parkrunners, walkers and volunteers for their dedicated service.

“In each stride and shared moment, we express gratitude to nurses reminding them that their efforts are not only seen but deeply appreciated.”

As a charity, parkrun have a community of over nine million registered ‘parkrunners’ and up to 300,000 people take part in parkrun every week.

Over the next five years they want to grow their weekly participants to over half a million.

parkrun will always be free, for everyone, forever and nurses as well as anyone else wishing to take part can find their local event here and register here.