MORE than 40 members of staff at Bradford College have taken part in a challenge to prove that keeping active can improve life in the workplace.

The Global Corporate Challenge saw people around the world walking, cycling, swimming and salsa dancing to reverse the sedentary lifestyle most workers experience.

And during the 100-day challenge one college worker even took a staggering 1.5 million steps.

College staff were recognised for their efforts at a ceremony at the college on Thursday, and hope that they will be able to continue incorporating exercise into their daily work routine.

Iain McKenna took 1.5 million steps and was nominated by his fellow team mates for a ‘Spirit of GCC’ Award. The sought-after award is only given to participants who have embraced the GCC, are making great steps to improve their own health and are motivating others in the challenge. Commenting on the award, he said: “I was pleased to win the Spirit of GCC Award. It has helped motivate myself and my colleagues to improve our activity levels and I look forward to taking part again next year.”

In total 140 record-breaking Bradford College staff achieved a combined total of 140,707,356 steps, which is an overall distance of 55,956 miles and equates to walking around the world two and a half times. They burned off the equivalent of 23,639 slices of pizza or 42,062 pints of beer or 22,621 slices of cake.

The Puddle Jumpers took top honours as the company’s most active team with their daily step average being over 17,000 steps.

Francesca Potter, account manager, GCC, was on hand to present awards to Bradford College staff. Speaking at the event, she said: “Bradford College employees have excelled once again this year and achieved an amazing average step count of 14,706, proving they go above and beyond expectations year on year. Bradford College also ranked 11th Most Active Organisation within the UK’s education industry sector, which is a fantastic achievement. It’s great to see so many employees in the college choose to take the path to a healthier life.” Commenting on the corporate health initiative, Bradford College walking champion and examinations officer Jonathan Curtis said: “Many employees spend an unhealthy amount of time seated at their desks and in their cars travelling to and from work. We want to empower colleagues to shake up their sedentary lifestyles and incorporate some beneficial physical activity into their daily lives. Global Corporate Challenge provided a great way to achieve this. This initiative is part of our ongoing commitment to the health and wellbeing of staff and students at Bradford College.”

Starting the challenge on May 28, Bradford College employees teamed up over 16 weeks to work together to boost their daily physical activity levels, both in the workplace and at home. Adopting more health-conscious lifestyle habits, Bradford College staff met the equivalent of World Health Organisation’s active lifestyle recommendation of 10,000 steps a day.

Increasingly, desk-based roles plus modern conveniences mean today’s typical employee takes just 3,000 steps per day, a far cry from the WHO recommendation. With inactivity linked to a host of chronic and increasingly common health conditions, including obesity, type II diabetes, heart disease, stroke, some cancers and depression, this shortfall presents a personal health threat to employees.

Before Bradford College employees participated in the challenge, only 27% of those taking part exceeded the 10,000-step recommended daily as opposed to 85% post-challenge.

Group chief executive officer Andy Welsh concluded: “It’s been a pleasure to support the Global Corporate Challenge for the third consecutive year. There have been some real benefits for everyone who has taken part. It’s great for health as it gets people walking more, it’s great for the environment as people leave their cars at home and walk or cycle to work and it’s great for team spirit. I’m really proud to have taken part in the initiative and have seen first-hand how people have pulled together to improve their health.”

Bradford College joined more than 1,200 organisations globally in the 2014 challenge, and help to improve the health of their own employees and communities worldwide. Together with UNICEF, the global GCC Community has so far brought clean water to over 11,000 schoolchildren in 33 schools throughout Zimbabwe and Cambodia.