Keen brigade

I refer to the recent University College London findings that half of all seven-year-olds in the UK do not do enough exercise (your report, 22 August).

While not every child can be an athlete, physical exercise at this age is vital for a child’s physical and emotional development and well-being.

At uniformed organisations such as the Boys’ Brigade (BB), physical activity plays an integral part in what we do. In fact, our children and young people will often do more physical activities at BB than at school.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

Whether it be indoor team sports such as uni-hoc (universal hockey) and football, or more challenging outdoor pursuits such as rafting, cycling and hiking, our ethos is to make sport and other activities fun for our 20,000 five-to-18-year-olds.

Our children need to grow into healthy adults and clearly activity levels need to increase in order to achieve this.

It doesn’t take much – an hour of activity a day makes a huge difference – but if our children are allowed to live sedentary lifestyles at the age of seven, we are building up towards major health problems in later life.

Bill Stevenson

The Boys’ Brigade

Carronvale Road

Larbert

Related topics: