SIR ALOK Sharma, MP for Reading West, hosted a Parliamentary reception with a number of stakeholders aiming to improve health.
Public health directors, local authority representatives, and senior members of the environment, travel, and sport sectors joined Mr Sharma at Intelligent Health’s People and Places Fit for the Future event.
Mr Sharma gave an opening speech, discussing his role as president of COP26 and lessons learned from the position regarding climate and health.
Intelligent Health’s founder and chief executive, Dr William Bird MBE, also addressed the reception, which also heard from MP Kim Leadbeater, chair of the All Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) for Sport, as well as Paul Foster, Deputy Chief Executive at Burney Leisure & Culture.
Intelligent Health is a Reading-based company which seeks to use connectivity to improve public health, most notably through its flagship program, Beat the Street.
Beat the Street sees boxed installed in certain locations around a town or city as part of a “gamified” challenge to encourage more exercise among students, first trialled in Caversham.
More than 1.7m people have taken part since its launch in 2013 across more than 120 locations, including pupils from 5,000 schools.
Mr Sharma said: “I was delighted to host Intelligent Health’s Parliamentary reception. Beat the Street helps highlight the importance of active transport in communities, and it was fitting to celebrate 10 years of the campaign on World Environment Day.”
Dr. William Bird said: “Sir Alok has followed our journey from the start, and we are so grateful for his continued support.
“On World Environment Day, partners past and present joined us in Parliament to celebrate 10 years of Beat the Street, considering how through collaboration we can all envision a healthier future for our communities and planet.
He explained: “From the early beginnings in Reading, over this past decade we have now engaged over 1.7 million people, enabling them to make more active choices which influence their health.
“There’s still much more we can achieve by empowering people to make small changes to daily behaviours that have a huge impact on our health and our environment.”
