Walking the way to wellbeing in Fleetwood

Eight months on and Fleetwood’s Wellbeing Way has benefitted the whole community, bringing people to the seafront on their daily walks, to take part in wellbeing challenges at intervals along the route.

It was created from a community project by Lancashire Mind and brought together The Rolling Scones WI, Sister Circle, Young Carers, Fleetwood Rugby Club and Men’s Shed, who worked together to get the project off the ground.

They first met in February last year but as Covid-19 hit, the groups soon found themselves communicating across Zoom. But that spurred them on even more and by August they were ready to launch the scheme.

Starting at the Log Cabin, opposite the Sea Cadet Base, the Wellbeing Way is a physical walking route along 1.83km of the upper promenade, towards Balmoral Terrace. On each of the disused bus stop signs, there are brightly coloured challenge boards, based on the five ways to wellbeing.

The five slogans to aspire to are Connect to Others; Be Active; Keep Learning; Take Notice and Give to Others.

Changed monthly, each board sets a different challenge to the Wellbeing Way user designed to promote personal mental health and wellbeing.

Alongside the physical route challenges, there are also Safe at Home challenges which can be completed in and around the home or garden.

The Rolling Scones WI spokesperson Debby Swain said: “You will find these posted on the Fleetwood Wellbeing Way Facebook Page, where we ask our users to post pictures of the physical route or Stay at Home challenges that have tried or completed.

“Some of the challenges have been created by working with members of the local community, Craig Broomhead from CB Fitness, Richard Gillingham from Fleetwood Museum to name a few.

“We have also worked with Amelia Hart from Sky UK.”

To date there are 1.2k members actively using the Facebook group from all over the country and further afield. Promotional videos have been made locally and the Wellbeing Way has also been visited by representatives from Hearing Loss UK who made a signing video.

Debby added: “In December you may have seen a merry band of elves treading the ‘Elfbeing Way’, they were taking part in the ‘Mental Elf’ Lancashire to Lapland fundraiser. By walking, running, cycling or wheeling, the aim was to cover the 3226km distance from Lancashire to Lapland.

“The target of £10,000 was more than doubled, as The Elves from Lancashire combined, covered a total of 9,686.7km.

“The Wellbeing Way goes from strength to strength, hopefully the next six months will be just as exciting. Our thanks go to Fleetwood Town Council for the Community grant awarded to help fund future signage for the Wellbeing Way.”

The innovative project was recognised by Lancashire Mind at its recent virtual awards with the Most Revolutionary Project of 2020.

To get involved the team can be contacted on Facebook or by e-mail [email protected].