Leisure Leagues was delighted this week to welcome Julian Knight, MP – the Chairman of the Digital, Culture, Music and Sport committee – to talk about our campaign to get the nation fit.

It’s become ever more vital, especially this week, after a study showed that obese people were 48% more likely to die of Coronavirus than those who were not.

The findings, which the lead researcher described to the Guardian Newspaper as “scary”, show that the risks for people with obesity are greater than previously thought.

Mr Knight, one of the most influential politicians in the country, said: “It was a pleasure to catch up with Steph and the Leisure Leagues team today in Solihull. They’re doing a fantastic job of getting people fit and active, and I look forward to seeing their great work continue.”

Fantastic to welcome Solihull MP @julianknight15 to the Leisure Leagues offices for some documentary filming with our TV crew 🎥🎬

We also discussed our #summerofweightloss campaign, as we look to get the nation moving again through 6-a-side football💪 pic.twitter.com/t4vazuy2LQ

— Leisure Leagues (@leisureleagues) August 25, 2020

We at Leisure Leagues have been working to get the nation moving since we were able to begin again after lockdown.

Thankfully, we have been able to get nearly all our existing leagues back since restrictions were lifted, with the rest to begin soon, but also we have started new competitions up and down the land, and thousands of new players have signed up across the network.

Executive Director Stephanie Bullock, pictured above with Mr. Knight, said the figures around Covid deaths were “extremely worrying”, and added: “These are exactly the sort of people that we are doing this for. They might not always be the best footballers, they might not always be the gym members – and for many our leagues might be the only exercise they get. It is wonderful to get so many people signing up.”

Stephanie thanked the MP for his visit and said: “It was a pleasure to welcome Mr. Knight. We were able to have a good chat with him across a wide range of subjects, and about the challenges we are very proud to have had to overcome in this period, so we can emerge even stronger.”

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