Practice Champions Fun Day for all

17th October 2019

Volunteers from a Stockport GP practice are holding a Fun Day on the last Friday of half term – and everyone is invited!

The Bracondale Practice Champions’ Well-Being Fun Day will be held on Friday afternoon (1pm-6pm) 25th October at St George’s Church on Buxton Road in Stockport.

There’ll be a bouncy castle and face painting for children, a café and a host of market-style stalls with information about a whole range of things.

The aim is to provide local residents with a chance to meet the Practice Champions and to find out about how they could get involved or just access the regular events run by them.

You can also get you blood pressure checked as well as getting advice on how to get yourself healthier and reduce your risk of serious illness.

One of the Champions, Tess McDermott said “You don’t have to be a Bracondale patient to come along to the fun day or any of our other activities. Everyone is welcome.

“We’d love it if more people wanted to volunteer their help. There’s no heavy commitment – you can give as little or as much of your time as you want. There’s nothing to be afraid of.”

Another Champion, Vanessa Lawton added “We’re not experts at anything in particular just a bunch of people who want to give something back to their community and see if we can help the community spirit, that already exists, grow.

“We know it’s working well but we really could do with getting more people involved so it can grow even quicker.

The aim of Practice Champions is to encourage collaboration between GP practices and people from the local community.

Local people volunteer as champions at Practices to offer new, innovative activities and support to improve the health and wellbeing of the local community.

So far four Practice Champion groups in Bracondale, Woodley, Heaton Moor and Cheadle are up and running in Stockport but the hope is that eventually it roll out to the whole of the borough.

The Practice Champions run everything themselves, with the support of staff from the practices, therefore empowering local residents to take control of their own wellbeing.

They have played a particularly strong role in tackling social isolation, with well attended weekly community events, and also helping others to change to a healthier lifestyle with regular walks, drama classes, craft sessions, healthy eating classes and other targeted activities.