Aberfeldy is aspiring to be ‘Scotland’s Healthiest Town’, where residents get the full benefit of living among hills, riverside walks and accessing support from each other.
Local health professionals in the Highland Perthshire town are concerned about the number of people suffering from low energy, poor sleep, low mood, diabetes, heart and stroke disease, lung disease and cancer.
They believe many of these conditions are preventable by changes in lifestyle.
A number of the improvements the local community has brought about in town life have had a good effect, like the extraordinary success of FeldyRoo in providing food for the housebound during COVID lockdowns.
There is also the youth-aimed Breathe Project, prescription delivery by Tay Valley Time Bank, the community-run Birks Cinema, the Men’s Shed, Strathtay Ramblers and many more examples of self-help in the rural district.
The ‘aspirational’ initiative for Aberfeldy came after GP Dave Ashcroft noticed people helping themselves to feel better by taking walks by the river, up the Birks or on the nearby hills.
The Aberfeldy and Kinloch Rannoch Medical Practice doctor got talking to fellow GP Callum Leese, retired doctor and now counsellor Angus Cameron and personal trainer and local advanced paramedic Johnny Will.
“We are convinced that community action could result in significant improvement in people’s fitness and health, enabling many to live well for longer,” explained GP Callum Leese.
“Here at the health centre, we dream of Aberfeldy being the healthiest place in the UK.
“This is a dream inspired by the worlds ‘blue zones’, places in the world where people live longer healthier fulfilled lives.
“Despite these five blue zones being located across the world, they share the same things in common: they move a lot, eat similar diets and have a similar outlook on life.
“We want members of the community to take this aspiration to be the healthiest in Scotland, and make it their own.
“By harnessing the power of our local community to improve the health and wellbeing of our ‘wee’ town, we dream of improved physical health and wellbeing, and of Aberfeldy becoming Scotland’s healthiest town.”
Dr Leese added: “This is our call to arms - and legs - to get moving.
“By taking action, not only individually but in families and groups encouraging and supporting each other, we can achieve more than we do alone.”
He told the Perthshire Advertiser that proactive lifestyle changes could bring better wellbeing and mental health in weeks, followed perhaps by weight loss and improved sleep, but that everybody was “an individual and what might work for one individual might not suit another person”.
The Healthiest Town initiative was given the approval of North Perthshire MSP John Swinney when he visited recently.
Mr Swinney commented: “This is an ambitious and hugely worthwhile initiative that seeks to improve the lives of those living in and around Aberfeldy.
“I am particularly pleased that those involved in this campaign are aiming to draw upon the community spirit of Aberfeldy, and that they are determined to make this an inclusive and welcoming initiative.
“I am delighted to offer my support to their efforts and I will be eagerly watching the progress that is made in the months and years ahead.”
Details about the Healthiest Town initiative in Aberfeldy can be found at: https://www.healthiesttown.org/ where suggestions of how to make the best of living in Perthshire - walking, sleeping, eating and enjoying time with others - are shared.
