Simon Burns

As former Shadow Health Minister, and a former member of the Health Select Committee which has investigated the important issue of obesity, Simon Burns MP has been at the forefront of promoting fitness and a healthy lifestyle.

Special Olympics

In June 2003 Simon Burns MP took part in the Special Olympics torch run from the House of Commons to Tower Bridge in London to raise money for the Special Olympics which were held in Dublin in the summer of 2003.

The Special Olympics is the major provider of sporting opportunities for people with learning disabilities and focuses on providing equality of opportunity for all athletes regardless of their level of athletic ability or degree of disability.

The Special Olympics were created by the Joseph P Kennedy Jr. Foundation which was established by the father of President Kennedy in memory of his eldest son who was killed on a flying mission from East Anglia in August 1944. Mrs. Eunice Kennedy Shriver (sister of the late President Kennedy, the late Senator Robert Kennedy and Senator Edward Kennedy) organised the Special Olympics for many years and the organisation is now run by her son Timothy Shriver.

Move 4 Health Fitness Campaign

As part of the Move4Health campaign, Simon wore a pedometer, which counted the number of steps he made, for a period of nine days. Research shows that walking at least 10,000 steps every day can lead to significant health benefits. If done daily it can make you feel better and can reduce the risk of developing serious illnesses such as heart disease, some cancers, diabetes and depression.

Upon completing this challenge the organisers, Move4Health, awarded Simon a prize for 'creativity'. Over the course of the nine days Simon walked a total of 115,435 steps with an average of 12,826 steps per day. This works out at almost 60 miles over the nine days!

During the first week of the challenge, Simon kept a diary of his progress which was printed in The Times newspaper (below).

Simon's pedometer results:

Mon	Tue	Wed	Thu	Fri	Sat	Sun	Mon	Tue
13,021	13,493	14,138	11,018	11,429	13,681	12,103	10,211	16,341

Simon Burns MP pedometer diary - as printed in The Times Newspaper

DAY ONE - Monday, 22nd March 2004

Members of Parliaments' lifestyles are notorious for being exercise-free. Most of their days are sedentary, either sitting in the chamber of the House of Commons or at interminable meetings. The only part of their bodies that get frequent exercise is their jaws. There is always the danger that to suddenly change from this lifestyle to a healthier regime of exercise and healthy eating could lead to a series of by-elections. When I told my children that I was to spend a week wearing a pedometer and taking exercise they, rather hurtfully, burst into paroxysms of laughter and accused me of being so wedded to my car that I drive the 500 yards around the corner to the newsagent.

With this ringing endorsement I awoke on Monday morning determined to prove them wrong. The challenge is to walk at least 10,000 strides a day - the equivalent of 5 miles - as measured by the pedometer that has been clipped onto my trousers at my waist.

The road to hell is apparently paved with good intentions and it was in that spirit that I awoke on a bright, sunny Monday morning determined to walk for Britain all day long. I put my pedometer on my trousers and briskly embarked on my adventure. Immediately disaster struck. As I was in Chelmsford there was no way that I could walk to work. However impressive the pedometer read-out would be, there was no way that I could physically, or logically, walk the 39 miles to Westminster.

Crushed by the thwarting of my first good intention of the day, I sheepishly drove to work determined that this would be the only setback of the day.

Arriving at Westminster, I proceeded to walk rather than taking the lifts and I was heartened to see that the pedometer was showing a satisfactory reading of just over 2,500 strides and it was only 10:45am. The corridors of power must be longer than I imagined.

My first engagement was encouraging. It involved walking to 10 Downing Street to meet a constituent, Mrs Sefton, and present a petition to the Prime Minister calling for improvements to the ambulance service in Chelmsford following the tragic death of her son last year. After this meeting I made my way to the BBC studios at Millbank to be interviewed by Andrew Neil and Daisy Sampson on 'The Daily Politics'. By now the pedometer was showing a healthy 3,750 strides and it was not even lunchtime. Perhaps reaching 10,000 strides in a day was going to be easier than I thought it would be.

But pride comes before a fall. By 3:45pm I was euphoric because I had now done 7,300 strides and there was still about 8 hours before bedtime. However, I had forgotten that for the next 6 hours I had to sit in the chamber of the House of Commons for the Budget debate on health. This was a major setback because it was 6 sedentary hours when I could be walking around and moving towards my day's target. Clearly drastic action was needed to recover the situation.

I was resigned to the fact that I would have to walk to where I was staying the night in London if the situation was to be retrieved and the target met.

DAY TWO - Tuesday, 23rd March 2004

On Monday night I went to bed in a euphoric mood because I had exceeded by 3,021 my daily target of 10,000 strides. However I was perplexed because I assumed with this exercise lark that I would feel better. In fact the opposite was the case because due to the unaccustomed activity I woke up feeling shattered. No doubt it will get better as the week goes on but why do I fear that that is in my dreams.

As my friend Keith Simpson MP said, quoting Somerset Maughan, 'I would rather sit down than stand and lie down than sit'. His only justification for this is he is built more for comfort than speed.

Feeling sanctimonious, I walked to work. By breakfast time I had clocked up an impressive 3,555 strides. I was confident that I would exceed yesterday's achievement. To keep the numbers up on the pedometer, I was beginning to discover parts of Westminster that I had not noticed in 17 years as I wandered around the Palace. Despite two, hour long meetings, by 11:45am I was up to 6,030 strides.

Lunch, that favourite time for politicians, slowed up my progress and sadly was a setback. I was confident though that with a number of votes in the Commons later on the Budget, where I would be walking constantly through the division lobbies, I would make up for lost time. I was also helped by a fire alarm in Portcullis House which meant that I had to walk down four flights of stairs and back up again. This might have made Chelmsford a candidate for a by-election but it also got the pedometer up to 7,700 strides.

With the prospect of having to walk home later I was confident that yet again I would do better than the set target and advance the cause of becoming a healthier member of the human race rather than a couch potato.

DAY THREE - Wednesday, 24th March 2004

With a sense of achievement I went to bed on Tuesday night in the satisfaction that I had walked more the second day than on the first, with the number of strides increasing to 13,493.

The next morning was overcast and cold. I set off to work with a biting wind blowing in my face and the occasional drizzle to add to the fun. As I got colder and colder I felt more and more sorry for myself. I fully appreciated the loneliness of the long distance walker.

Enticing taxis kept passing me, with their bright amber 'For Hire' signs tempting me like sirens. But still I plodded on, resisting the temptation to cheat. Prime Ministers Question time, a lunch engagement and a sitting of the Health Select Committee all threatened my target for the day. Yet, at lunchtime, the pedometer registered a reasonable 6,200 steps. However, the prospect of a sedentary afternoon threatened a major setback in my goal for the day.

My fears proved unfounded. By the early evening my total had risen to 9,550 - the highest level at this time of the day so far. I am perplexed and can only assume the interruptions to the Health Select Committee's work by votes on the floor of the Commons has significantly increased the readings.

Sadly though, I still cannot feel any noticeable health benefits. Perhaps it has a cumulative effect and I will wake up one morning feeling reinvigorated. One can live in hope. I am nevertheless pleasantly surprised how easy it seems to be to make relatively small changes to ones lifestyle, which dramatically increases the amount of exercise one takes. Perhaps breaking out of the cycle of being a couch potato will be easier than one first thought.

I survive to walk another day!

DAY FOUR - Thursday, 25th March 2004

To my great surprise, on Wednesday I managed to walk just over 7 miles - a total of 14,138 strides. It is quite amazing to me that this can be achieved by making only a few relatively minor adjustments to my lifestyle.

Buoyed up by this, I strode to work on Thursday optimistic that I would continue to beat the 10,000 stride target - despite a two and a half hour Health Select Committee meeting. By lunchtime I had clocked up just over 5,000 strides. However, the omens for the rest of the day were not good as I had to drive back to Chelmsford in the afternoon.

On arrival, I walked round to the newsagents to buy some milk, which made me smile as my children had accused me of always driving there. Not only had I now proved them wrong, but it did show that I was adjusting my exercise patterns to meet the targets. If that is the only thing I achieve this week, it will have been worthwhile because I have become far more conscious over the week of how I should walk rather than take the easy options of lifts and escalators.

I am also starting to feel slightly healthier for it. Perhaps I was a little over-optimistic at first, thinking that I would feel the difference immediately overnight, but now that I have been increasing my exercise steadily for a number of days, I am starting to feel the benefit. Hopefully, if I can keep this exercise regime up, I will continue to feel better each week.

By early evening, my pedometer reading was up to 8,935 strides, which was respectable considering four hours of the day was spent in a committee meeting and in a car. Despite the meetings, the debates and committees, perhaps MPs are not quite as sedentary as we all assumed but simply, like many others, just physically lazy.

DAY FIVE - Friday, 26th March 2004

All great challenges have time limits. Phileas Fogg travelled around the world in eighty days, Sir Ranulph Fiennes completed seven marathons on seven continents in seven days, and I am set to walk over 10,000 steps a day for a whole week. As I near the end of this personal journey, I find myself reflecting on the past few days - on the hurdles I have had to cross, the obstacles I have had to overcome.

And what a week it has been. I have surprised myself at how, through making only a few alterations to my daily routine, I have managed to not only walk the target 10,000 steps every day, but often to surpass this. Unfortunately, yesterday I only managed to walk a total of 11,018 strides. Being Thursday, I drove back to Chelmsford in the evening to spend the weekend in the constituency which meant I missed out on the 3,000 stride walk home.

I awoke on Friday morning looking forward to the day ahead but also slightly apprehensive of having to continue my task in the constituency, where there might be fewer opportunities to walk. When in the Commons with the endless votes which require one to stride through the lobbies, the dashing between incessant meetings and committee hearings, in addition to my daily jaunt to and from the Commons, it was always going to be easier to meet the target 10,000 strides, but how I would fare when working from home had yet to be discovered.

I started the day by walking to my newsagents - a habit I hope to continue when my challenge has reached its end. I then attended a meeting with Chelmsford PCT at the local hospital when I realised that today's challenge was going to be complicated even further. The entire afternoon was to be spent conducting my constituency surgery - an almost completely sedentary exercise. There seemed little hope of breaking my record 14,138 steps today! Despite this setback, by the end of my surgery I had still walked 6,309 steps.

Although it took some time for me to get used to the extra walking, by Friday I was starting to feel the benefits and I do admit to feeling much healthier for all this additional exercise. Although the weekly project is nearing its conclusion, my competitive nature and genuine desire to succeed, means I am going to try and continue my new regime throughout the summer. The pedometer is more than a gimmick, it is a conscience tied to my belt. Not only do I feel better but in just five days I have managed to loose three whole pounds. Who knows, by Christmas, perhaps I will be a new man!