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In support of Heart Awareness Month, members of the Stellenbosch University (SU) community participated in the #MyHeartYourHeart fun run/walk from Helshoogte Road to Coetzenburg athletics stadium on Wednesday 25 September. The event was arranged by Campus Health Services (CHS).

Joining the SU participants were a group of staff from the University of the Free State (UFS), who embarked on a run from the UFS Bloemfontein campus to Stellenbosch on 20 September to raise awareness of mental health. The UFS staff took on the 1 075 km between Bloemfontein and Stellenbosch with each runner completing a relay race of 9 km per day. The final 4,2 km of their journey coincided with SU's #MyHeartYourHeart event.

According to Dr Jo-Anne Kirby, a medical doctor at CHS and heart awareness campaign coordinator, the aim of #MyHeartYourHeart was to motivate staff to lead more active lives. “Although UFS ran for mental health awareness and SU for heart awareness, the two are actually linked. People suffering from mental illness are more likely to develop heart disease, and those with heart disease are more likely to develop mental illness. One effective treatment for both is exercise. Physical activity counters the risk factors for heart disease and treats symptoms of depression and anxiety. So, exercise is medicine," says Kirby.

#MyHeartYourHeart also served as a launching pad for SU's Be Active campaign in response to a second UFS challenge following the recent “pedometer" initiative, in which UFS, SU and another two universities took part. For the pedometer challenge, 640 staff members from the participating institutions covered a combined distance of 192 000 km in eight weeks.

The Be Active challenge will be an eight-week event from 30 September to 25 November to determine which university is the fittest. Using data from smartphones or sport watches, points will be logged for running, cycling, swimming, gym workouts and daily steps.

As part of the Be Active initiative, UFS has also challenged SU to get the University of Cape Town (UCT) involved by running from Stellenbosch campus to UCT's campus in Cape Town, says Kirby. “I hope fellow SU members will join me in running and completing this challenge so that we can motivate more people to 'Be Active'."

To raise further awareness of a healthy lifestyle, CHS will be offering staff free medical screenings on the Rooiplein on Stellenbosch campus from 12:00 to 14:00 on Friday 27 September.

For more information on the Be Active challenge, contact Dr Jo-Anne Kirby on 021 808 3290 or jkirby@sun.ac.za. 

Photos by Stefan Els.