Celebration of sport for women and girls around the Fylde

Physical activity among girls has increased despite the pandemic

Blackpool Paralympian Shelly Woods is among the inspiring female role models involved in a variety of free activities and resources now available and running until next Monday on the lancashireschoolgames.co.uk website.

The aim is to raise awareness of the huge physical and mental benefits of engaging in regular sport.

The SPAR Lancashire School Games traditionally staged its spectacular finals at Blackpool’s Stanley Park each summer.

However, the pandemic meant the games went virtual last year and the organisation has continued to develop its online resources in partnership with Active Lancashire.

Dominic Holroyd, children and young people development officer with Active Lancashire, said: “Girls have shown great resilience during Covid-19, adapting well to online and alternative physical activities.

“One hundred thousand more girls were regularly active in 2020 compared to 2019. This is a fantastic statistic when you consider the challenges Covid has created.

“We want to encourage mothers, grandmothers, aunties, teachers and friends to get active and reap the benefits regular sport can bring.

“Sport England has found that children from areas of deprivation and BAME communities are less likely to be active, especially girls.

“However, if we ensure sport and physical activity are fun, then children are more likely to sustain physical activity in future.

“Our main aim is for the games to be a fun way to be active and make sure we are making the games inclusive for all young people, especially girls.

“Exercising as a family can be a fantastic way of strengthening relationships, motivating each other and forming healthy long-term habits that encourage children to remain active during their adult life.”

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