19 June 2020

Canberra to the North Pole for healthy hearts

| My Gungahlin
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It was a close race to the end! Hundreds of Canberran’s, along with 10 gyms and fitness groups travelled the equivalent distance to the North Pole. An impressive effort – and no reindeer or sleigh required! They logged 18,405km and raised $22,468 for the Heart Foundation.

Gyms competed with one another for the title of Canberra’s Biggest Hearted Fitness Team for 2017. “We’re delighted to announce Canberra’s Biggest Hearted Fitness Team for 2017, the team with the highest combined kilometers and dollars raised goes to Ascend Strength and Fitness,” said ACT Heart Foundation CEO Tony Stubbs.

People were encouraged to walk, jog or run the equivalent of a marathon (42.2 kilometres) in their own time during the month of October, whilst raising money to help fund life-saving research to fight heart disease.

“Everyone knows that exercise is good for your health. This was about creating an opportunity to make it count, and to challenge people to go the extra mile.”

Team Ascend Strength and Fitness worked closely with local businesses and the Gungahlin community, and clocked over 300km raising more than $2,200 to support the Heart Foundation in Canberra. “We’re proud to be ‘Canberra’s Biggest Hearted Fitness Team,” said Andrew Lemmon, director of the local business Ascend Strength and Fitness.

The Heart Foundation recommends any exercise is better than none. Work up to it slowly, and aim to accumulate 2.5 to 5 hours of moderate intensity physical activity or 1.25 to 2.5 hours of vigorous physical activity each week.

“A massive thank you to our fantastic teams and to everyone who donated to our page, your support means a lot! MyMarathon was a great opportunity to raise awareness of one of Australia’s biggest health risks,” said Andrew.

Tony congratulated all MyMarathon participants, “Everyone who took part are winners, because they made their exercise count towards fighting Australia’s biggest killer, heart disease. In Canberra, nearly one in three people have some form of heart disease but don’t know it.”

“When someone you love suddenly passes away from heart disease, you just wish you could’ve prevented it. You wish you could have done something to keep them around for longer. MyMarathon participants were doing just that – through supporting the Heart Foundation ACT.” said Tony.

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