We’ve put together some ideas of places you can go to for information to help you with your pledge. As you can imagine, there is a mass of information available so we can’t possibly mention it all. We’ve separated what we think may be useful into General and Local information.
General Information (see below for local links)
Online
There are some main sites each holding enormous amounts of great stuff!
- Haughton Thornley Medical Centres website www.htmc.co.uk
- NHS choices www.nhs.uk
- Boots www.webmd.boots.com
- My Health www.myhealth.patient.co.uk (It has a test to help you work out your focus)
- Patient Information www.patient.co.uk
- Health Guide www.helpguide.org
- Citizens’ Advice on www.adviceguide.org.uk
- NHS Choices - living with long term conditions
- NHS Choices - interactive lifestyle tools
If you don’t have access to a computer then perhaps you could ask someone to look up information for you...
Other
- Local libraries are keen to help and have lots of general & local information
- Your doctor’s surgery will have useful information & advice. They can often help with special programmes for weight loss or smoking cessation for example
- Local papers are great sources too
Specific Information
General sites are very useful but you may want to look at a single issue for more specific information
I’m sure you already know this but if you Google 'mental health' for example, you will get a long list so try to choose a reliable site eg.
Mental Health
Blood Pressure
Heart Health including heart rate
Lung disorders
Healthy Eating
Alcohol
Exercise
- 10 min workouts to do at home www.nhs.uk/10minworkouts
- Work out DVDs - loads in the charity shops!
- Run Together - friendly local running rgoups throughout England
- www.webmd.boots.com search for fitness
- Walking for health www.walkingforhealth.org.uk
- Rambling www.ramblers.org.uk
- Swimming http://www.swimming.org/swimfit
- Cycling www.britishcycling.org.uk
- Running http://www.runengland.org/
- NHS Couch to 5k plan
- For local classes or groups see our Local section
- Exercise with your Wi can be great fun!
- My Fitness Pal is a great and free online food and exercise diary
Local Links
Here are some links to local organisations and help groups who may be able to help and encourage you on your journey.
Most areas will have plenty of support groups and other organisations that can help inspire you to pledge and make it successful. We’ve used Tameside as an example but of course, you will use your own Local Authority
For local support and activity groups, type into your preferred search engine:
“Voluntary groups in Tameside”
“Support groups in Tameside”
“What’s on in Tameside”
These will get you to different parts of the council database where you can search for what you need.
General
Activity
Running/Jogging
East Cheshire Harriers based at Richmond St athletics track, Ashton-Under-Lyne
Hyde Village Striders Running Club based at the Village Hotel, Hyde. Regular free Stride Out for Beginners courses
Run Together Groups - search for a local running/jogging group. Some are free and some have fees.
Swimming clubs
Ashton-Under-Lyne Swimming Club
Cycling
Transport for Greater Manchester cycling pages (adult training, commuting etc.)
Workout Classes/Gyms
Active Tameside formerly Tameside Sports Trust
Healthy Eating
Health/Medical Support
Tameside mental health services
Tameside Libraries Health Resources
Information on individual issues is readily available
Search
Running in Tameside
Exercise classes in Tameside
Singing in Tameside
Lots of local information on www.netmums.com
Volunteering
Community Voluntary Action Tameside www.cvat.org.uk
Tameside Hospital www.tamesidehospital.nhs.uk/work-with-usvolunteers
Work with older people www.independantage.org
Offline
- Your local library is a treasure trove of information & inspiration!
- Perhaps you can get someone to look things up on the Internet for you.
- Ring the council offices & ask for information.
- Ask at your doctor’s surgery for health information.
