Sure and teachers complete huge steps challenge

Thursday 30 August 2018

49 local teachers and 91 employees from Sure are completing a world-wide challenge today, having together taken more than 190 million steps to both improve their physical and mental health, and advocate others do the same.

The Virgin Pulse Global Challenge was a 100-day virtual journey around the globe, which saw the entrants, in teams of seven, track their activity and work towards a daily target of 10,000 steps.

Sure employees have taken part in the event for six years but for 2018 the Sure Community Foundation decided to invite teachers and staff from three local schools to join in the challenge.

This year, it started on the 23 May, and ends today.

At the half way stage, the Sure teams had taken 16.3m. steps, meaning they had covered approximately 6,500 miles, and the school teams had covered 4,130 with a total 10.3 million steps.

Overall, the teachers and the Sure staff stepped an equivalent to 50,000 miles, or twice around the planet.

"It’s surreal to think how far we have all stepped in just three months, especially when you compare it to a couple times around the globe. We’ve all put in a great effort to achieve or surpass the 10,000 step target and I look forward to next year’s challenge,” Garry Coutanche, Health and Safety Manager at Sure, said.

The challenge itself aims to enlighten people to be more aware of their wellbeing and physical activity levels - all of the local entrants have reported improvements in their health and fitness, and said they had enjoyed challenging themselves.