NHS England Plans 'Marathon a Month' Walking Challenge for Next Year

NHS England will launch a "marathon a month" challenge next year that requires participants to walk roughly 30 minutes a day. People who complete the month will become eligible for exercise rewards whose details have not yet been announced. The scheme forms part of wider efforts to increase physical activity; one outlet reported that NHS England links inactivity to one in six deaths in England.

Hundreds of readers described habits that already reach the daily target after the plans were reported. Ed Shirt, 25, of Prestatyn in Denbighshire, Wales, said the 30 minutes can be broken into three 10-minute segments. "Walk before work, on your lunch break or after dinner," he said.

Georgia Blackwood of Dudley in the West Midlands gets off the bus a couple of stops early and walks instead of taking short bus rides. She also carries shopping home in a backpack to add resistance. Barry Nicholson, 51, of Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk, walks his beagle Max for 45 minutes each morning and evening.

"Having a dog is one of the biggest tips," he said. Geoffrey Murrell and his wife Carole, both 82, reach at least 4,500 steps through shopping trips and errands in Bedford and Milton Keynes. Murrell, who is receiving treatment for bladder cancer and has diabetes, sometimes walks farther to hospital appointments.

Sophie O'Sheen, 31, of Maidstone, Kent, walks the two-and-a-half-mile route to work in about 45 minutes. Violet Black, 80, of Edinburgh, walks five miles daily except in snow or ice. Daphnyan Gordon of Craigavon in County Armagh uses a walking pad indoors when rain begins.