VIKINGS IN THE COMMUNITY Health experts join in to Beat The Scrum
TWO of the UK’s leading health sector experts were welcomed by Widnes Vikings to their Super League opener against Catalans Dragons.
Roy Lilley and Terri Porrett oversee the Academy Of Fab NHS Stuff, an online hub containing innovations in the health sector.
The duo attended the fixture to find out more about the ground-breaking Beat The Scrum campaigns.
They were welcomed to the game by Dave Sweeney, implementation lead for NHS Health And Care Partnerships in Cheshire and Merseyside; Mel Pickup, chief executive of Warrington And Halton NHS Foundation Trust; and Vikings chief executive James Rule.
Beat The Scrum involves legends of rugby league and Widnes Vikings stars uniting to raise awareness of how people can lead healthier lifestyles and make the right choices when accessing i NHS services.
Through providing an innovative mix of digital promotion, PR campaigns, stadium advertising, as well as appearing i on th the f front t of f th the Vikings 2018 playing shirts, it contributes towards efforts to reduce pressures faced by NHS services.
It has been commissioned by the Mid-Mersey A&E Delivery Board.
Mr Lilley said: “Beat The Scrum is the most effective public health campaign in years; tough issues taken on ● by tough people, hard messages for a tough problem, and at the heart of it all people who care.
“Thank you for what you’ve achieved and the example you’ve shown us all.”
Last June, Widnes Vikings delivered the first Beat The Scrum campaign, in partnership with NHS Halton Clinical Commissioning Group.
It attracted more than 100,000 online video views, extensive regional and national media coverage, and had a measurable impact on reducing pressure on A&E services in the area.
The Vikings received the Rosa Parks Award from the Academy Of Fab NHS Stuff for the programme, as well as the Digital Campaign Of The Year and Integrated Campaign Of The Year at the Chartered Institute Of Marketing Northern Awards.
The project has recently been followed up with a winter health campaign backed by some of rugby league’s biggest names including Warrington Wolves legends Mike Nicholas and Paul Cullen, St Helens greats Ray French and Phil Vievers, and Widnes’s own Jim Mills.
Mr Rule said: “It was an honour for us to welcome Roy and Terri to the Vikings.
“To hear two of the most informed and respected people in the world of health praise Beat The Scrum as being a ground-breaking and effective programme was humbling.
“We would like to thank our partners at the Mid-Mersey A&E Delivery Board for backing the programme and look forward to building on the success of these campaigns in the season ahead.”
Mr Sweeney added: “Beat The Scrum is a unique initiative that has real creativity in how it expresses some of the most important NHS messages.
“Having been awarded the prestigious Rosa Parks Award, we were delighted to welcome Roy and Terri to Halton, so they could find out more about the campaigns and see up close the incredible backing they’ve had from the local community.”