Be active in the fight against cancer This World Cancer Day, 4 February, the focus is on ‘showing your support through sport’: a chance to harness the collective power of professional and amateur sportspeople across the world to raise awareness of the need to fight cancer together.
Why sport? Here’s the message from the World Cancer Day organizers…
“Like World Cancer Day, sport allows everyone at every level to participate and get involved. Partnering with sport groups will help us amplify the natural synergies in messaging and common areas of interest between the cancer community and sport, including being physically active, creating healthy cities, schools, and workplaces, and joining forces to make a difference.”
Cancer and cardiovascular disease (CVD) share many of the same risk factors, such as tobacco use, poor diet, alcohol, being overweight and of course physical inactivity. As part of our focus on achieving a 25% reduction in premature mortality caused by CVD by 2025, we align with the World Health Organization Global Action Plan Targets.
For physical inactivity, the WHO Target aims for a 10% relative reduction in prevalence of insufficient physical activity: this is defined as the population aged 18 and over attaining less than 150 minutes of moderate-intensity physical activity per week or less than 75 minutes of vigorous-intensity physical activity per week, or equivalent.
Tweet your support for World Cancer Day tomorrow using the hashtags: #WorldCancerDay and #WeCanICan. And don’t forget to post photos of any sporting event you are organizing or taking part in.
Take a look at World Heart Federation resources and initiatives around physical inactivity
