Leading charity, Action Cancer and independent retail group, Centra have announced the winners of their fifth annual Health Action Awards. In the Western Education and Library Board region Omagh High School and St. Patrick’s Primary, Newtownstewart have won awards, recognising their proactive approach to health promotion activities for pupils.
Sixteen winning schools impressed Action Cancer with their commitment to healthy eating, extra-curricular exercise, safe sun education and cancer awareness programmes.
The awards are part of Action Cancer’s ongoing Health Action initiative, which offers a range of health promotion roadshows for primary and secondary schools, as well as further education colleges, and is sponsored by Centra.
Developed specifically for Northern Ireland schools, Health Action aims to educate young people on the importance of a healthy diet, care in the sun and the need to take exercise in the fight against cancer. The award-winning programme is supported by the 86 Centra retailers across the province, who have raised £270,000 to fund Health Action over the past four years.
Action Cancer’s Health Promotion Manager, Emily Magrath congratulated the winners; “Each year in the award applications we see the excellent health promotion work being done in schools across Northern Ireland. It is always difficult to choose the winners, but the top schools this year really shone, with a wide range of healthy activities for pupils.
“The aim of the awards is to encourage schools to do as much as they can to improve the health of young people. The winning schools have shown real commitment to the health of the young people in their charge.
She added; “With Centra’s help Action Cancer’s Health Action programme continues to make a positive impact, delivering healthy lifestyle messages to more than 70,000 schoolchildren since 2003.â€
All sixteen schools receive a Health Action trophy and the winning primary and secondary school in each Education and Library Board will be given a £200 cash prize, to be spent on school equipment. Awards will be presented at a special ceremony in October.
Centra Brand Manager, Nicky Kelly commented; “Centra retailers, very often parents themselves, understand the importance of health education for young people and proactively support Health Action by promoting the scheme locally and fundraising for its running costs. We are proud to support the Health Action Awards as they help motivate schools to deliver high quality health promotion activities and this will hopefully save lives in the future.”
For information on the Health Action Awards, or to get your school involved in the Health Action programme contact Action Cancer on 028 9080 3344. A full list of Health Action Award winners is available at www.actioncancer.org