WALK AWAY FROM HEART DISEASES

WALK FOR HEALTH..... Taib and Teng leading the Walk-A-Mile programme, accompanied by, behind them, Ragad at left and Deputy Chief Minister Datuk Patinggi Tan Sri Afred Jabu at right.

By : LEE YA YUN

PREVENT.....CM calls on people to take up walking as an exercise to heart diseases and stroke.

KUCHING: Heart diseases and stroke are the world’s leading cause of death claiming 17.3 million lives each year but about 80 per cent of premature deaths from heart diseases and stroke could be avoided through exercises, proper diet and not smoking.

This was revealed by Dato Anne Teng, the organising chairperson of the World Heart Day event held at Friendship Park at Jalan Song here yesterday morning.

Taking a cue from the statistics, Chief Minister Pehin Sri Abdul Taib Mahmud, who was accompanied by his wife Puan Sri Ragad Kurdi in  the main event of the day, Walk-A-Mile around the park, called on the people to take daily walks as it was an effective way to prevent heart diseases.

Expressing concern on the lack of physical activity among the people here, especially the children who preferred to exercise only their fingers playing computer games, Taib urged adults to encourage children to exercise through walking.

FUN AND HEALTHY: Participants doing warm-up exercises before the Walk-A-Mile programme.

GOOD RESPONSE: Thousands of participants take their walk around the Friendship Park.

He added exercising through walking to prevent the heart diseases, the leading killer in Malaysia , was within everybody’s means.

“Walking is the best way to keep healthy. When we are walking, every part of our body moves, not only the feet and the result is to stimulate our heart with good activity.

“I hope we can get our children to adopt it as one of their main activities. Our children probably will exercise their fingers much more than anywhere else in their body. Don’t get only your fingers to be healthy but your whole body,” said Taib.

The Chief Minister said he practiced what he preached as despite his busy schedule he kept to his regular exercise routine of walking.

He added that those who lived in housing estates should use the parks in their area for their walks.

Taib who is the patron and chairman of Sarawak Heart Foundation (SHF), pledged that the state government would continue to support events that highlight healthy lifestyle as a means to prevent heart diseases.

He announced a donation of RM50,000 from Laila Taib Foundation and a state government’s allocation of RM100,000 to SHF.

The half day event attracted about 2,000 people who turned the Friendship Park into the sea of red.

The participants also had their health screened at the section maintained by the Heart Centre of Sarawak General Hospital.

Deputy Chief Minister Datuk Patinggi Tan Sri Alfred Jabu Numpang, Infrastructure Development and Communication Minister Dato Sri Michael Manyin, Assistant Minister for Public Health Dr Jerip Susil were among those who joined the event. (BP)