University of St Andrews

Bio: Researcher in exercise psychology
My interests are in the promotion of physical activity, exercise, health and wellbeing in clinical and non-clinical populations. My background is in psychology (BSc University of Sheffield, 2010) and sport and exercise psychology (MSc Sheffield Hallam University, 2012; PhD University of Nottingham). My PhD explored the promotion of physical activity in children with type 1 diabetes. My current research involves evaluations for organisations such as parkrun, Public Health England, the EIS and Sport England and research aiming to understand participation and promotion of physical activity across different populations (e.g., children and adults with diabetes, serious mental illness and cancer). I am currently acting as Vice Chair of the parkrun Research Board.

Seminar:
Parkrun is a free, weekly, timed 5km run, walk and volunteer event every Saturday morning across the world. It has grown over its 15 years to have around a thousand UK parkruns with around half a million new people registering every year. In a world where changing physical activity behaviour is challenging, what is it that draws people to parkrun? What keeps them there? And what is parkrun’s public health potential?
This presentation has three parts:
1. An introduction to parkrun and the parkrun Research Board
2. Parkrun for people living with long-term health conditions (visual impairment, long-term conditions and cancer)
3. The parkrun Health and Wellbeing Survey 2018: a brief overview