Step to it with work autumn walking goal

A charity with strong links to Perthshire has encouraged colleagues to sign-up to compete in a national autumn walking challenge.

Teams of five can now register for the Step Count Challenge, which is managed by Scottish walking charity Paths for All.

The popular workplace initiative encourages people to come together and discover fun and exciting ways to stay active in and around the working day.

Beginning on Monday, October 31, the challenge will run for four weeks throughout November.

Earlier this year, 834 teams took part in the eight-week spring Step Count Challenge – which saw more than 4000 people collectively take more than 2.2 billion steps.

And despite cooling temperatures and darker nights, the charity expects eager teams to don their favourite walking shoes again this autumn.

Carl Greenwood, a senior development officer at Paths for All, said:“Being active helps to increase focus and productivity, improves wellbeing and reduces stress.

“We’ll continue to support the teams taking part this autumn with tips, motivational blogs, and weekly prize draws.

“We encourage as many teams as possible to take part and to really enjoy the benefits that walking offers.”

Teams can their track progress online and access a carbon calculator to measure the positive impact that making local journeys on foot has on the environment.

Participants can also sync any chosen fitness trackers to the Step Count Challenge website.

In addition, everyone taking part in the challenge will be automatically entered into a prize draw to win a £1000 gift voucher for Macdonald Hotels & Resorts.

Registering a team of five has been priced at £30.

For more information, visit www. stepcount.org.uk.

Earlier this year Paths for All announced a fund worth £1.5million had been set up in memory of popular late Comrie resident Ian Findlay, who was a respected CEO of the charity.