A community group set up to fight cancer through exercise has broken down the task of running or walking five kilometres to make it easier for people to go the distance.
The Tunbridge Wells ‘5K Your Way’ initiative aims to encourage those living with and beyond cancer – including families, friends, and those working in cancer services – to walk, jog, run, cheer or volunteer at a local Parkrun event on the last Saturday of every month.
Last Saturday (August 28), it was the turn of the Pickering Cancer Drop-In Centre in Tunbridge Wells to lend support to the initiative.
Led by the drop-in centre’s founder Polly Taylor, the team joined in with the bank holiday crowd and urged others to join in, too. “We supported 5k Your Way today and met some very lovely people,” a Pickering team member posted on Facebook.
“Please come and join us, it is great fun and keeps you fit!”
Billing itself as a ‘coffee morning with a difference’, the Tunbridge Wells group meets near the café in Dunorlan Park at 8:45am before the official Parkrun starts at 9am. But it is the extra support of the group which makes the distance more manageable, according to the volunteers.
“There are people who run or walk half the distance, or walk just one loop round the lake. You don’t have to complete the full 5K distance to take part,” said the group.
“Our ambassadors Lindsay, Richard, Alyson and Vikki will be there to support you, and we meet for a coffee afterwards, which is why it’s called ‘a coffee morning with a difference’!”
The Tunbridge Wells 5K Your Way, Move Against Cancer group is on Facebook, or can be contacted through 5kyourway.org
