Events

Upcoming Events

Healthy Lifestyle Roadshows with Diabetes UK

MEND have partnered with Diabetes UK to deliver Healthy Lifestyle Roadshows in the 70 most deprived Local Authorities in England during 2011 and 2012.

Diabetes UK staff conduct type 2 diabetes risk assessments on members of the public. For those found to be at risk, MEND Ambassadors (local programme managers and programme graduates) are on hand to talk about their MEND experience and how small lifestyle changes have helped them to become fitter, healthier and happier.

To find out when the roadshow is coming to your constituency, please contact Ailsa Nicol, Policy & Public Affairs Officer via 0207 231 7225 or ailsa.nicol@mendcentral.org If you would like to visit your local roadshow, we are happy to support you by providing a photo call and template press release.

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MEND, MPs and enthusiastic MEND champion, Taryak Hussain, aged 11 (pictured) took part in the Bupa 'Get Moving' challenge to raise awareness of the benefits of taking regular exercise. Organised by Bupa in partnership with MEND, the walk also sought to highlight Building Powerful Communities, the community-wide approach to improving public health in Tower Hamlets. See our press release for more details.

MEND at the Party Conferences 2011

As a member of the Health Hotel, MEND attended all three political party conferences this year. At the Conservative party conference, MEND hosted an exhibition stand in the Central Hall where we showcased our work and some of our key partnerships. We were delighted to have productive conversations with the Rt Hon Andrew Lansley MP, Secretary of State for Health, Anne Milton, Public Health Minister, and Nick Hurd, Minister for Civil Society, amongst others.

National Childhood Obesity Week, 4-10 July 2011

MEND joined forces with the Department of Health’s Change4Life campaign to release research which revealed that children are falling short of the recommended 60 minutes of physical activity a day and instead spend more time in sedentary activities such as watching TV and playing on computer games.

MEND also ran Move It Week to spread the positive message about the benefits of physical activity by encouraging families to spend time being active together. MEND participants and graduates took part in a range of fun physical activities and events that took place across the UK with their families and friends. In York families took part in a Wii Fit Challenge, a Dance-a-thon and Olympic themed activities whilst over in Swansea around 240 pupils from eight Swansea primary schools were given a taste of the decathlon at Swansea University Sports Village.

Preventative Health 2011

MEND's Director of Strategic Partnerships, Phil Veasey, discussed the importance of a preventative strategy for tackling obesity.

Westminster Food & Nutrition Forum Seminar: Obesity – time for a new approach? - February 2011

MEND's Chief Executive, Harry MacMillan, spoke about the role of business and the third sector in tackling obesity.

Britain on the MEND: MEND's annual parliamentary reception – November 2010

25 MEND graduate families came to the House of Commons from all across the country to tell politicians and other key decision makers how MEND has given them the tools to make important lifestyle changes that work for them, and how they now lead fitter, healthier and happier lives.

Read more here.

Solving the public health crisis: We've found the miracle cure – September / October 2010

As a member of the Health Hotel, MEND ran a fringe event at each of the three main party autumn conferences in 2010. With guest panellists, Paul Burstow MP, Minister for Care Services, Mary Creagh MP, then Shadow Public Health Minister, and Chris Skidmore MP, Conservative Member of the Health Select Committee. These fringes focussed on how we can encourage sustainable behaviour change by commissioning physical activity and lifestyle improvement, and questioned whose responsibility it is to do this.

Making Prevention Work - September 2010

In association with the National Obesity Forum, the Association for the Study of Obesity and Scintillate, MEND ran a policy workshop entitled Making Prevention Work. Using weight management services as a case study, the workshop brought together policy makers, service providers, commissioners, and local delivery teams to identify the challenges to the current process of commission behaviour change interventions, recommend practical solutions to improve the process, and inform policy direction on the future commissioning arrangements.

National Childhood Obesity Week 2010

In July 2010, MEND and the National Obesity Forum launched the inaugural National Childhood Obesity Week. During NCOW, Grahame Morris MP, Member of the Health Select Committee, tabled EDM 478 calling for further cross-government action to tackle childhood obesity. We also launched the Childhood Obesity Charter which was signed by 13 organisations including the British Heart Foundation, the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health, the UK Faculty of Public Health, and Diabetes UK.