Dr Yas Naheed, one of the GP’s at Thursby Surgery in Burnley was inspired to improve her own health and wellbeing. During the pandemic Dr Naheed received a letter from government to inform her that she had a higher risk of Covid, she is a middle aged lady who had a high BMI and diabetes. At the same time, Together an Active Future asked Dr Naheed if she would like to support the ‘Let’s Do It For’ campaign. The letter and request triggered Dr Naheed to take action to be more active and she asked a personal trainer to help her.
To date, Dr Naheed had lost five stone in weight, her long-standing back pain has eased and she comments and she is no longer a diabetic, she comments “I feel twenty years younger!” Dr Naheed wanted to share this fantastic feeling with her patients and invited twelve of her patients to join her on a twelve week programme; during which the doctor and her patients met twice a week for a workout. Eleven of the patients enjoyed and completed the programme, reporting a wide range of benefits from losing weight, sleeping better, being more flexible, adopting healthier eating habits and experiencing better mental health.
All the patients who participated have valued the programme and their comments include:
“It’s been fantastic coming on this programme, we’ve benefitted a lot from it.”
“I would definitely recommend people to come and do this course. I feel much better, fitter and my blood sugars have gone down quite a bit.”
“No matter how slow you go, you’re still lapping everyone who is sat on the couch.”
In addition to inspiring her patients, Dr Naheed encourages her colleagues at the surgery to be more active and organises three lunchtime walks a week.
The Royal College of General Practitioners are so impressed by the efforts Thursby Surgery are taking to enable their patients and staff to be more active and reduce their sedentary behaviour that they have been recently been recognised as an Active Practice, the first GP surgery in Burnley to receive this award.
Rebecca Lord, the Practice Manager at the surgery says
“Being an active practice has made such a difference to our staff, those 20-25 minutes of walking around the park ensures staff get away from their desks, have some fresh air and it uplifts their spirits and moral ready for the afternoon session. In general practice sometimes you can be stuck at your desk all day and it’s very important that you take that time out to recharge the batteries.”
If you’d like to find out more about the Dr Naheed’s personal weight loss journey, read her blog here. To learn more about the patients’ programme, click here to watch a short video.