Spark Steps Challenge: Walking in the shoes of NHS A&E staff

Off the back of walking (virtually) all the way from the Spark office to New York, for this year’s challenge we’re going to walk a mile (and more) in the shoes of NHS staff.

I was amazed to read recently that NHS A&E staff can walk as far as 11 miles on a busy shift. That’s more than double the 10,000-step daily target many of us aim for. To get an idea of just how far these NHS heroes walk, across the course of June we’re counting how many steps everybody in the agency walks, to see how many ‘shifts’ we can complete.

We’ve got a number of targets along the way, shooting for an ambitious grand total of 500 11-mile ‘shifts.’ Spark will be making a donation to an NHS charity in line with our progress towards a huge 11 million-step target. There’s an individual challenge too, with the person who walks the furthest deciding which NHS charity receives the donation.

My dog will be very tired by the end of June, as I am desperate to repay the fantastic Barts Charity, which runs services in East London and has helped me and my family in recent years. However, there’s bound to be stiff competition, with some of the team surpassing 100,000 steps in the space of four days at the start of June.

Stay tuned for updates on our blog page and social channels over the course of June!