Who runs Walking for Health

Walking for Health works at two levels – the national centre and local health walks schemes. 

The Walking for Health national centre is run by Britain’s leading walking charity, the Ramblers, in partnership with the UK’s best loved cancer charity, Macmillan Cancer Support. 

The national centre provides resources to support local schemes, including training, insurance, accreditation, national promotion, help and advice. 

Until the end of March 2012, the national centre was run by Natural England.

 Local health walks schemes are funded and managed locally, and run by a wide variety of different organisations. Many are run by local councils or the NHS but others are run by both local and national voluntary organisations. 

Local health walks schemes organise and lead the health walks themselves, promote them locally and work to link them up to other local health and well being initiatives. 

More about the Ramblers 

The Ramblers is Britain’s leading walking charity. It is at the heart of walking in Britain, working to promote walking and to protect and improve the places where people walk. Established in 1935, it has 116,000 members and around 17,000 volunteers. It works for a walking Britain, in both countryside and city. 

The Ramblers promotes walking for the contribution it makes to health and well-being and a more sustainable way of life. It operates a range of projects aimed at encouraging inactive people to start walking for health, including Get Walking Keep Walking which is based around a 12-week walking programme. It also runs 38,000 led walks a year through its network of 550 local Groups across England, Scotland and Wales, including many short, easy and urban walks. 

The Ramblers also works to keep the footpath network clear, to secure better access to open land and the coast, and to protect the outdoor environment. 

For more about the Ramblers see www.ramblers.org.uk.

More about Macmillan Cancer Support 

Macmillan Cancer Support improves the lives of people affected by cancer, providing practical, medical, emotional and financial support.  Working alongside people affected by cancer, Macmillan works to improve cancer care. One in three of us will get cancer. Two million of us are living with it. If you are affected by cancer Macmillan can help.   

Being more physically active can help with some of the side effects during and after cancer treatment, such as fatigue and depression. Macmillan wants more people affected by cancer to take up moderate exercise and walking is an accessible way to participate, whatever your level of fitness. 

For more information about Macmillan Cancer Support, visit www.macmillan.org.uk. Our cancer support specialists, benefits advisers and cancer nurses are available to answer any questions people affected by cancer might have through our free Macmillan Support Line 0800 808 0000.  

Outside England 

The Walking for Health project only covers England. Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland have their own health walks schemes. Please see the links page for details.