Media release from Bupa Care Services

Bupa Care Services and Auckland Transport are joining forces in a "Walk to Support Week" to encourage grandparents, older neighbours and community members to get involved with the Walking School Bus (WSB).

This week students will be encouraged to invite a grandparent, older family member or neighbour to join them on the WSB 17-21 September. Bupa retirement village and care home residents will be encouraged to take part in local WSB journeys during this week.

Dwayne Crombie, Managing Director of Bupa Care Services said "Walking more is one of the most effective lifestyle changes people can make to reduce long term health conditions and we are urging everyone to build more walking into their daily routines.  We are delighted to be supporting Auckland Transport with this initiative"

Bupa employees, residents and people from the wider community will during September take part in other walking events around the country as part of the Bupa Global Challenge 2012.

"We're happy to be partnering with Bupa to get people of all ages engaged in active travel', says Auckland Transport's Manager of Community Transport, Matthew Rednall. "The walking school buses that are run throughout Auckland are a great way of getting children moving whilst reducing congestion on our roads. Encouraging seniors to join in is an excellent way to involve the wider community whilst promoting the health benefits of walking across the generations."

They will take to the parks, streets and walking tracks with people young and old in an effort to get over 5000 New Zealander's walking. A new report by the international healthcare group Bupa shows that walking is in decline and that 22% of New Zealander's agreed to regularly taking short journeys by car that they could walk.

This is part of Bupa's Well World commitment, helping to enable 60 million people to make positive changes to be healthier and happier by 2015, and reduce our carbon footprint by 20 percent.