New parkrun will 'spread happiness and positivity'

Parkrun is considered one of the largest health and wellbeing movements in the UK and is socially prescribed by GPs.

There are now more than 50 free 5km (3.1 mile) events across the West Midlands region every Saturday morning, with thousands of people running, walking and volunteering.

Now a new one is being launched at Cofton Park on the Birmingham-Worcestershire border, the venue made famous by Pope Benedict XVI's visit in 2010.

The main organiser, Kevin Oakes, said he wanted to "spread happiness, positivity and help others get healthy".

His passion for running began when he was 17, after being diagnosed with type 1 diabetes.

"Running helped me control my blood sugars and also helped me with my own mental health crisis at that point."

The 37-year-old, who works as head of sales at Hitachi UK, has since gone on to found his own running club, South Birmingham Striders.

He said he wanted to "get people active" with the new event because he believed running was "the treatment" for many of life's issues.

In 2018, parkrun UK and the Royal College of General Practitioners (RCGP) launched the parkrun practice initiative to promote the social prescribing of the local 5km events.

Dr Hussain Al-Zubaidi, a Leamington GP, who is also parkrun's health partnership lead said now "more than a third" of GP practices had joined the scheme.

He said it benefited a range of patients from those who were "isolated and lonely and wanted to connect with other people", to others who had "just been diagnosed with type 2 diabetes and wanted to improve their health".

The GP said it had also changed his own life: "I was significantly overweight and I'd been diagnosed with fatty liver disease and I came to parkrun, and although the 5km was really difficult, it inspired me."

He said it had also transformed his career because it "made me look beyond medication and understand the impact social prescribing can have".

The Cofton Park event was given official approval from Birmingham City Council in March this year.

When devising the 5km route, Oakes wanted to cover as much of the 135-acre park as possible while also avoiding some of the park's more challenging hills.

"Cofton Park is a beautiful landscape to run around, it's different every day you run round it."

He had to raise £4,000 to cover parkrun's one-off start up fee, which pays for signage, scanning devices and volunteer training.

He set up a GoFundMe page and said he was "immensely proud" of the generous donations from the local community, many of whom had also offered to volunteer.

The parkrun is due to launch on Saturday 4 July.

Oakes said he was expecting up to 1,500 people for the first race and would need at least 12 volunteers to keep the event running every week.

"I'm very proud to bring something into the area that can actually have a positive effect and potentially see different generations taking on this course".