Kids can go the distance
Olympic medallist and decorated track and field athlete Eilidh Doyle is encouraging schools in Renfrewshire to take part in the Daily Mile.
The Daily Mile Foundation supported by Scottish Athletics, INEOS and SAMH, is to host its first national event across Scottish schools on June 18.
Over 40 per cent of schools in Scotland are already signed up to The Daily Mile and many more are expected to join across the country in coming weeks.
The event aims to encourage children to be more active, to improve their physical, mental, social health and wellbeing.
The Daily Mile is a transformative initiative where children run, jog, wheel or walk for 15 minutes every day.
The initiative has enjoyed phenomenal success since it was started by Elaine Wyllie eight years ago when she was headteacher at a primary school in Stirling.
The Daily Mile Foundation announced Eilidh, Scotland’s most decorated track and field athlete, has been nominated as the ambassador for ‘Scotland does the Daily Mile’.
Eilidh said: “I’m delighted to be the ambassador for The Daily Mile in Scotland and support this project as I think it is a really positive initiative to get young people more active. As a former teacher, I approve.”
“It’s fantastic to see so many schools signed up so far and I’d urge as many schools as possible to get involved.
“I’m excited to be endorsing this programme because I feel passionately that youngsters should be given the opportunity to be active and that hopefully starts out at primary school.
“Exercising with friends is so much fun and being active from a young age has many benefits.”
Elaine Wyllie, founder of The Daily Mile added: “I hope you can all still join us for our Travel To Tokyo challenge which finishes with Scotland Does The Daily Mile event on the June 18. There’s still plenty of time to get involved.”
The Daily Mile currently has over three million children running a daily mile across 12,000 schools in 80 countries, but this is the first national event in Scotland of its kind.