BendigoWeekly www.bendigoweekly.com.au Bendigo’s most-read newspaper
ISSUE 772 FRIDAY, JULY 20, 2012
WEIGHTY CHALLENGE: Pat Jess, Dana Thomson, Brett Belot, Suezanne Martin, Tim Firman, Alicia O’Brien, Andrew Dare and Briony Gee. Photo: ANDREW PERRYMAN.
MEET the Bendigo fatbusters, the team whose job it is to make us healthy. Bendigo has the third highest rate of obese and overweight people in Victoria, with 56.9 per cent of us too fat. One out of every four locals consumes alcohol at levels considered to be risky or high risk at least yearly, or more often. The Bendigo Healthy Communities Team was set up in re-
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sponse to the city’s poor health statistics. The team is based at the City of Greater Bendigo council and Bendigo Community Health and funded by the state and federal governments. Led by Pat Jess, the team will aim to improve our health where we live, work and play. “We will be connecting with schools and workplaces and teach them how to make in-
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formed and easy choices everyday,” he said. “Everyone in the community needs to play a crucial role in preventing poor health. “It is about recognising that good health is important for all of us as individuals, families and communities and that we all contribute to making Bendigo a happy, healthy place.” Each week the Bendigo Weekly will give a page over to the
Healthy Communities Team to promote what they do and when and where they do it. This week, the team introduces themselves and asks for feedback from you, the community, on what you think is important for good health. Weekly editor Anthony Radford said the newspaper was proud to support the program. “The stats about our health are really shocking. We need to
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all get behind this team and support them as much as we can,” he said. “The Weekly will work with them to help take their messages to the community and make a difference. “There is nothing more important than our health and this team is dedicated to improving the health of our entire city.” Meet the team – Page 10.
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