Strive to be active and healthy

The crisis has brought increased awareness of how interconnected our society is, how good mental and physical health is as intrinsic to our wellbeing as a clean environment, cultural events, social connections and work.

Our government may be at the head of the response, but to really revive and thrive as they suggest requires holistic thinking and us all to be proactive.

The sports and arts sectors have a major role to play in all this.

Guernsey is currently achieving many firsts as it races out of lockdown, attracting international attention as, for example, real-life competitive sports action returns. This sector has now received a small but welcome boost with an initial £25,000 from the Social Investment Fund.

We should be striving for an active and healthy society and for that to happen means ensuring there are opportunities across a wide range of interests. Some sports and clubs will be hit harder than others, they also wax and wane in terms of their popularity and it needs to be recognised that keeping them alive in the hard times will reap long-term benefits in the better times.

Guernsey is blessed with a core of volunteers and administrators that have kept the sport scene strong. What it has lacked and what is appearing is a comprehensive vision for where the individual elements should be aiming, the opportunities that are out there for development and evidencing the impact it all has on wider society.

The States' goal of being the happiest place to live will never happen if our society is not active. We need to be more proactive in tackling obesity levels, for example, without the need to resort to expensive medical intervention to deal with the consequences. Sadly more people will die early as a result of health conditions related to obesity than Covid-19, yet only one has seen unprecedented action.

Later in the summer the States will be debating a Plan for Sport. It comes at an opportune moment as the economic recovery presents new opportunities for fresh thinking.