MEND team’s award boost

AWARD winners...from left, Adele Stanton, of OCHS, Paul Sacher, research director of MEND, Emma Haman, local MEND programme manager, Harry MacMillan, MEND chief executive officer, and Laura Heslop, of Oldham Sports Development.

A PIONEERING programme to help local youngsters beat obesity has won a national award.

The MEND scheme (Mind, Exercise, Nutrition...Do it), which is run by Oldham Community Health Services, has won the Overall Best Practice Award 2008 as part of national efforts to reduce the number of obese and overweight children.

The annual MEND Best Practice Awards are designed to acknowledge and recognise teams that excel in running MEND Programmes in the community.

The OCHS team has run nine MEND programmes to date, helping 84 children and families along the way.

MEND Chief Executive Officer Harry MacMillan said: “We were particularly impressed by the OCHS programmes’ performance and the commitment of their delivery teams, who are achieving outstanding results.

“This MEND team has strong community relationships and they bring local organisations and key leisure services together to provide the best experience for each family.

“We hope that with this significant acknowledgement, the OCHS MEND programmes will continue in their success and help many more families learn healthy living skills in a fun and supportive environment.”

Emma Haman, MEND programme manager at OCHS, said: “”We are all delighted to have our hard work and commitment recognised.

“We are passionate about improving the health and lives of young people and their families in Oldham and I think it is this passion that helps us to be the very best we can.

“Thanks must go to our partners, which include Oldham Council Sports Development, Oldham Community Leisure, Oldham Athletic Football Club, New Deals for Communities and Old-ham’s Dietetic Depart-ment, along with many others, whose support and input has been essential to the success of the service we provide.

“We can’t wait for the new MEND programmes to begin in January.”

MEND is a community-based intervention programme to prevent and treat childhood obesity.

The 10-week course, which is delivered free of charge to participants, uses techniques developed by health experts to help children aged seven to 13-years-old who are above the healthy weight range for their age and height and their parents or carers learn about food and discover fun ways to get fit.

Families in Oldham who are interested in taking part in the new January 2009 programmes can phone Wavney or Sarah on 0161 621 7121 or visit www.mendprogramme.org