The AFC Fylde Community Foundation has been delivering the unique Health and Wellbeing programme ‘Get on Board’ to all Year 5 pupils throughout the Fylde Coast.

Get on Board, delivered in partnership with Fylde and Wyre Clinical Commissioning Group and The Football Conference Trust, has been designed to increase physical activity rates and support awareness of health wellbeing and nutrition.

The programme aims to decrease obesity within primary school age children and educate students across Fylde, providing them with the skills needed to make informed choices when it comes to their diet and nutrition. Each school receives three half-day seminars, delivered by the Foundation’s Health and Wellbeing team.

Health and Wellbeing manager Michael Brown has been delivering the programme since it launched in 2014 and believes it is vital that young students are fully aware of the choices they make at their age.

Michael said: “It’s important that children know that physical activity and healthy eating is extremely beneficial. Fortunately most children enjoy playing sports and it’s my job to inform them that a good balanced diet and physical activity will lead to healthy lives.”

Dr Tony Naughton, clinical chief officer at NHS Fylde and Wyre Clinical Commissioning Group, said: “Keeping fit is at the very core of the self-care message we are trying to promote across Fylde and Wyre. The health service needs people to do the best they can to stay as fit and well as possible and what better way to instil this in people than by starting at an early age. The Get On Board project has been a big success so far and we are delighted that so many of our area’s young people are able to benefit from it.”

For more information, please visit www.afcfyldefoundation.co.uk