The People’s Movement are limbering up for Race For Life on June 4th, by providing thirty women with their own personal trainer, and special training sessions to help them make it over the finish line.

The budding runners will take part in Race For Life wearing People’s Movement t-shirts to highlight the benefits of increasing physical activity on people’s health and well-being.

Wendy Ulyett, 40, a Senior Tourism Officer, is running Race For Life to show support for her close relatives and friends.

She said: “My family has a history of breast cancer, and so taking part in Race For Life is a showing of solidarity and support for my family and friends. I felt is was important to be able to train properly for the race, so that everyone supporting me could be proud as I crossed the finish line. The People’s Movement have really helped my preparation by giving me a training programme that allowed me to go at my own pace. I feel great, have lost a little weight and can’t wait to get started.”

Training sessions have been taking place six times a week at various venues across the city, including Hillsborough Leisure Centre, Tinsley Green Centre, Parson Cross Park, and High Green Sports Centre. At each session, a personal advisor has been on hand to give the women advice on how to prepare for the race, and show them tips and techniques on how to pace themselves properly.

Helen White is part of The People’s Movement team who have been taking training sessions with the runners.

Helen said: “For the past eight weeks we have been giving training sessions on different days of the week for the thirty women who are running for their own personal reasons, and to help The People’s Movement highlight the benefits of physical activity on people’s health.”

She added: “I’ve been really pleased with the progress people have been making. We started out by simply walking around, getting everyone comfortable, and have gradually built up the intensity over the last few weeks. I think they have learnt a lot about their bodies and how regular activity really can have many health benefits.”

This year’s Race For Life is fully booked up, with 10,000 people registered to run at the event. Demand was so high last year, the organisers had to schedule two separate races on Sunday June 4th, to allow even more people to take part.

Paul Billington, spokesperson for the People’s Movement, said: “We are delighted to be supporting Race For life this year, as not only is it a worthy cause, but the event promotes the fact that physical activity has so many great health benefits. People taking regular activity, such as running, can help to reduce their health risks of up to 20 diseases, including heart disease, and some forms of cancer, and help to maintain a healthy weight.”