How a weekly walk can save your life
After retiring from a busy teaching career, Lorraine Strookman was feeling the ill effects of putting her feet up. Within two years she needed an inhaler to control her asthma and was diagnosed with diabetes.
Fortunately, she took a step in the right direction after picking up a guide to local health walks from her doctor’s surgery. Now Lorraine controls her diabetes without medication, no longer needs an inhaler and feels far more positive after losing a stone and a half in weight. “Regaining this freedom is fabulous” she says. Lorraine remembers how difficult her first walk was. It took all her strength to climb to the top of a hill, and on her return home that afternoon she went straight to bed, exhausted. But the next week she was out with the walking group again and within a few months began noticing the health benefits.
Lorraine’s inspiration to walk came from the project leaflet, but she also liked the fact that the walk leader insisted she fill in a brief and confidential wellbeing questionnaire. This reassured her someone was “looking out for her.” At least two trained walk leaders marshal the group and the pace is determined by the slower members; it’s never a race. In many ways, taking part in the weekly walks has enabled Lorraine to look after herself and have a better quality of life. She feels she knows her local area far better and has made new friends. “There’s always someone in the group who has an interesting fact about a local landmark, the story behind a tumbledown old house, or this plant or that bird. I never get bored.”
Now Lorraine, her husband John and their two boxer dogs try not to miss their weekly outing with Sustrans’ Active Travel Cornwall project in St Austell.
After retiring from a busy teaching career, Lorraine Strookman was feeling the ill effects of putting her feet up. Within two years she needed an inhaler to control her asthma and was diagnosed with diabetes.Fortunately, she took a step in the right direction after picking up a guide to local health walks from her doctor’s surgery. Now Lorraine controls her diabetes without medication, no longer needs an inhaler and feels far more positive after losing a stone and a half in weight. “Regaining this freedom is fabulous” she says. Lorraine remembers how difficult her first walk was. It took all her strength to climb to the top of a hill, and on her return home that afternoon she went straight to bed, exhausted. But the next week she was out with the walking group again and within a few months began noticing the health benefits.Lorraine’s inspiration to walk came from the project leaflet, but she also liked the fact that the walk leader insisted she fill in a brief and confidential wellbeing questionnaire. This reassured her someone was “looking out for her.” At least two trained walk leaders marshal the group and the pace is determined by the slower members; it’s never a race. In many ways, taking part in the weekly walks has enabled Lorraine to look after herself and have a better quality of life. She feels she knows her local area far better and has made new friends. “There’s always someone in the group who has an interesting fact about a local landmark, the story behind a tumbledown old house, or this plant or that bird. I never get bored.”Now Lorraine, her husband John and their two boxer dogs try not to miss their weekly outing with Sustrans’ Active Travel Cornwall project in St Austell.