Walking Football Partnership Aimed at Improving Health Outcomes for Scottish Men and Women

Scotland’s leading health charity Chest, Heart & Stroke Scotland has announced a partnership with Walking Football Scotland at Hampden Park, the home of Scottish football.

The partnership will see the two charities work together to improve health outcomes for thousands of over fifties across the country. Chest, Heart & Stroke Scotland’s Health Defence Team will visit many of the Walking Football Teams across Scotland to offer health checks such as blood pressure and cholesterol level tests.  These tests can be early indicators of a risk of stroke or heart disease.

More than 9000 people have a stroke in Scotland every year.  Incidences of heart attack are even higher, with 11000 people in Scotland having a heart attack in 2022. 97 per cent of these occurred in people age 45 or over.

As part of the partnership, Chest, Heart & Stroke Scotland will be the headline sponsor of the Walking Football Scotland Scottish Cup and Football Festival, which takes place at Glasgow Green on 24th June.  The event is anticipated to be the largest Walking Football Event ever held, with 78 teams signed up to take part.

Kicking off a new partnership

Matt Ramsay, event organiser and trustee of Walking Football Scotland said: “We are extremely grateful to be working alongside CHSS in delivering the biggest one-day walking football event in the world.

“We see this partnership being the perfect opportunity to further enhance our offering to clubs across the country with the help to improve physical health with the early intervention support that CHSS will be able to provide.”

Allan Cowie, Chief Operating Officer of Chest, Heart & Stroke Scotland, attended the launch at Hampden. Speaking about the partnership he said: “Working in partnership with Walking Football Scotland will amplify both organisations’ desire to promote physical activity as a key element to enhance people’s own health and wellbeing.

“Our collective aim is to both increase the numbers of men and women who choose walking football as part of their efforts to keep active and to ensure they have access to information and support to manage the risk of or legacy from a stroke or heart disease.

“The impact of taking part in regular physical activity such as Walking Football on both physical and mental health cannot be underestimated, and by offering easy to access health checks in a familiar environment we can break down barriers to healthcare, identifying those at risk, and encouraging them to pursue treatment.”

A recent pilot project that saw the team from CHSS’s Maryhill Health Defence Hub attend a Walking Football session at Glasgow Life Maryhill to provide health checks was found to be a huge success.

Walking Football participant and coach Colin Craig (73) took part in the event. He said: “At the event I found that I had slightly high blood pressure. Gillian from CHSS suggested I visited her at the Maryhill Hub for further check-up and I was then referred to my GP for further action.

“The fact that they came to our football environment in a very relaxed setting with no pressure, I was able to take the steps needed which have now improved my health and my life.”