Postal workers in Exeter and Swindon took part last autumn in the British Heart Foundations (BHF) “Pedometer Challenge”, an initiative set up to encourage people to become more active, and therefore stave off the likelihood of having a heart attack.

With research suggesting that walking 10,000 steps a day will significantly improve your health workers at Royal Mail (RM) sites organised themselves into teams of five and nominated a captain to take part. They were then given pedometers and setting them the target of taking more steps than anyone else, the challenge was on!

In Swindon it was organised by Sandra Absalom, the Lead ULR for the SW No7 Branch. With the full support of her branch and RM management Sandra set to work with help from staff in several workplaces around the Swindon area. Whilst in Devon ULR Darren Rowbotham recruited teams across Exeter.

Importantly, the teams were all issued with rules and safety tips to make sure they finished the event fairly, but most critically safely, without injuring themselves in the attempt!

Team Captains were responsible for tracking their individual team member’s step-count sheets, and collecting their combined efforts and all teams were issued with rules and safety tips to make sure they finished the event fairly.

Darren said “I set the postal staff in Exeter Royal Mail Delivery office The Pedometer Challenge at the start of November as part of a union learning experience. It was a four-week challenge to get the employees thinking about the amount of walking they do daily, and encourage  team building. It was also a fun and easy way for employees to improve their physical and mental well-being.”

“The average person walks between 3,000 and 4,000 steps per day, and 1,000 steps is the equivalent of around 10 minutes of brisk walking, it was clear from the start that the postal staff were well above the average recommended target per day and the discussions amongst the staff was a great realisation of this.”

Sandra added that “when setting up the Pedometer Challenge, I never thought that we would have had so many people getting involved. From the two sites we had 100 people taking part”.

Participants said the challenge made them aware of how much or little activity they did, and The main reported benefit of taking part in the challenge was ‘being part of a team’ , followed by the feeling of ‘increased fitness’ and ‘feeling good about myself’  and the boost in staff morale was clear to see.

Both Sandra and Darren were very excited in the response from colleagues, and the amount of people getting involved. Towards the end of the challenge the health benefits for employees were clear to see as staff discussed how they felt and how many steps they had completed, some of the benefits included:

• raised awareness of activity levels
• good for team spirit/ team building
• boosted staff morale
• contributed to stress reduction
• encouraging people to walk to work

Across Swindon and Exeter millions of steps were pounded by local posties. The person with the most overall individual amount of steps was Swindon's Shazia Ahmed with 917,552 steps.

Sean Lovett, team captain of Swindon's winning “Head Hunters” team, said: “the Challenge gives the team the opportunity to see just how far they walked over the course of the day, which was a lot more than any of them realised”.

Darren said: “Generally feedback on the pedometer challenge was positive in terms of success and awareness of health and well-being at work, though some staff found the pedometers were dropping off their trousers while carrying out their delivery duties.”

“Well done to everyone who took part, a huge effort was made and who knows what challenges lay ahead next year for our members in the South West!”

Anyone interested in setting up their own Pedometer Challenge can contact the South West Unionlearn team or check out the BHF website www.bhf.org.uk/