Blood, Sweat, NO Tears Virtual Relay Race

Blood, Sweat, NO Tears!

Charity launches viral email campaign.

The Mental Health Foundation today launched ‘Blood, Sweat, NO Tears’, an email campaign to spread the message that exercise is good for your mental health.

The viral email invites people to participate in a virtual relay race as part of the charity’s year-long campaign to raise awareness about the positive impact of exercise on mental health. Evidence presented in the Mental Health Foundation’s recently published report, Up and Running?, shows that a supervised programme of exercise on prescription can treat mild or moderate depression. Based on this research, the charity is calling for patients to be offered exercise on prescription as a firstline treatment option.

The email game is based on a 400 metre relay race. As the virtual starting pistol goes off, players sprint as fast as they can for the first 100 meters of the track, passing the email baton on to their friends and family to complete the next three stretches of the race.

Dr Andrew McCulloch, Chief Executive of the Mental Health Foundation, said: “A significant number of people remain unaware of the positive role that exercise plays in looking after and improving your mental health. Society needs to be educated about the benefits of exercise.”

To play the virtual relay race and find out more about the exercise campaign visit www.mentalhealth.org.uk.

The Mental Health Foundation, founded in 1949, is the leading UK charity working to improve services for both people with mental health problems and people with learning disabilities. They bring together teams that do research, develop services, design training, influence policy, and raise public awareness within one organisation.

(You can download the organization’s full report, titled Up and Running? Exercise therapy and the treatment of mild or moderate depression in primary care, 267 KB PDF.)