National Lottery – Awards for All

In 2024 we secured £20,000 of funding from the National Lottery, under the ‘Awards for All’ funding stream with the goal of supporting 150 new exercisers graduate from our Staywell Exercise Programme.

We are delighted to report that we exceeded our targets substantially, since we began the promotion over 750 exercisers have started our Staywell Programme. Over the same time period:

• 25% of our Staywell Graduates (who completed 20 exercise sessions and two assessments) saw an increase in their VO2 max of over 40%.
• 7% of Staywell Graduates who had a BP higher than 140 at the start of their programme saw their BP drop below 140
• 20% of Staywell Graduates reported an improvement in their mood using the HADS (Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale)

Staywell Graduates Kevin Scott told us, “After I retired from a job with long hours and lots of travelling I was keen to prioritise my health. I didn’t have any diagnosed health issues, but I wanted the reassurance of a monitored and structured programme – I didn’t want to be the person who starts exercising and overdoes it. When my wife (Angela) mentioned Staywell I realised that that exercising with an initial health assessment and regular monitoring felt like the right way to start using a gym.”