Healthy Walking Group success in Perranporth

One earlyish morning on the 25th of January a group of fifteen friends, neighbours and members of the Perranporth community set out for their first walk around the town, arranged by Michael Paul Carman, a regular attendee of Perranporth Community Hub and resident of Perranporth.

Since the Hub began in Sept 2022 Michael, an ex Special Constable from South London, has been talking about setting up a Healthy Walking Group to support people to be more active, socialise and enjoy the great outdoors together, while getting people from all different backgrounds in the community to get connected with one another. With a little support from the Hub this group and idea was finally realised in Jan 2023 and has now been running for some weeks, taking its first tentative steps (pun intended) through the mizzle and sometimes bright Winter days and now going from strength to strength in to the Spring.

Michael was best placed to start the walking group as he'd already been involved in setting up a similar group before Covid, which had been initiated by The Eden Project who provided Walk Leader training to people across Cornwall, and then supported these Leaders to set up groups in their own communities. This Eden Project funding was in place to support people with Diabetes and who were Pre Diabetic to become more active, get out of the house and to do more exercise, taking a light touch, community approach to supporting their health issues.

Many people in Perranporth have been asking Michael for many months, since the pandemic has begun to fade in to the background, whether another group would be started and so Michael decided to take the initiative and set one up himself, motivated from his own desire to support people in the community to feel more connected and get more exercise on a regular basis. He wanted to create a group that was welcoming and accessible to all, so each Wednesday the Walk Leaders and volunteers assess the fitness level of the group before deciding on what route that day’s work will take, and since Jan they have been all over Perranporth, on the beach and around the town on many different walks, taking in many different locations.

Each Wednesday the Hub walking group meets at 9.45am at the Hub, outside St Michael’s Church Hall, and then the group go on an hour walk, timed perfectly to fit with the Perranporth Community Hub drop in café which runs from 11am - 12.10pm on Wednesdays. This means all the walkers can enjoy a cup of tea, piece of cake and a catch up from 11am back at the Hub café.

If you like walking or know someone who you think might benefit from joining the group, then please contact Michael Paul Carman at michaelcarman48B@yahoo.co.uk for more information or just come along to one of the Hub walking sessions to get involved.