8 June 2023

The community of Portsmouth are being encouraged to lace up their trainers and wear blue for a walk, run, jog or skip to celebrate 75 years of the NHS.

Portsmouth Hospitals University NHS Trust (PHU) has teamed up with the Southsea parkrun to celebrate the 75th anniversary of the NHS, as part of national parkrun celebrations in July.

‘parkrun for the NHS’ is an opportunity for NHS staff to join together with their local communities to acknowledge the huge contribution that the NHS makes to the health of the nation and celebrate all the staff and volunteers, past and present, who have made the NHS what it is.

Regular parkrunner and Chief Financial Officer at PHU, Mark Orchard was the first to sign up for this year’s 5k event, which will take place in Southsea on Saturday 8 July at 9am, starting near The Briny Restaurant.

Mark said: “As a fan of parkrun myself, I am so delighted that up and down the country we will be celebrating the NHS 75th birthday with a special NHS blue and fancy dress parkrun.

“I want to encourage all NHS staff and our local community to sign up to the event in Southsea as a participant or volunteer and we can’t wait to see you all along the seafront in July.”

Tennis star Sir Andy Murray is among those encouraging people to take part in the special event and to take steps towards a more healthy, active lifestyle.

Southsea parkrun director Chris Kenyon said: “The whole team at Southsea parkrun are delighted to join with Portsmouth Hospitals NHS Trust to celebrate the 75th anniversary of the founding of the NHS.

“We have a huge respect for all NHS staff and we are really looking forward to seeing many of them running, jogging, walking or wheeling 5k along the promenade with us, or helping us fill our roster of volunteer roles. 

“We will be asking our regular participants to wear blue this week in honour of the NHS, and will offer a very warm welcome to anyone new to parkrun who turns up at Speakers Corner in time for 9am start.”

To sign up for parkrun, which is completely free of charge and run by a team of volunteers each each, please head to www.parkrun.org.uk/southsea/

You will need to bring your barcode with you on the day to get a time stamp on the course.

Buggies and dogs are also welcome in the event.

Don’t want to take part in the 5k? You can volunteer to help with the event including, timekeepers, marshals, barcode scanners and token sorting.

You will need to sign up on the parkrun website and then please email Southsea@parkrun.com with your name, barcode and preferred role.

If you have any further questions, please email southsea@parkrun.com