Aghalee Day Nursery scoops top health award

The Beeches Day Nursery picked up the award from local charity Action Cancer and store Centra at the annual Health Action Awards at Lagan Valley Island, Lisburn.

The Awards are part of Action Cancer’s Health Promotion Programme, sponsored by Centra, as part of the brand’s ‘Live Well’ initiative.

Now in its 15th year, the series has delivered healthy lifestyle messages to more than 11,000 young people in schools, nurseries and colleges this academic year and over 500,000 since its launch in 2003.

This year, 50 schools from across Northern Ireland picked up awards for their innovative approach to health education, with the highest scoring schools in each Education and Library Board region receiving cash prizes of £200 for school equipment.

The schools who received awards demonstrated good health promotion across various areas including providing healthy meal options in their cafeteria, promoting healthy snacks and water, encouraging extra-curricular exercise programmes and running cancer awareness initiatives.

Action Cancer Health Promotion Officer Amy Thompson said: “Our congratulations go to all of the schools recognised at this year’s Health Action Awards. We are delighted to be able to recognise the great work local schools carry out to provide their pupils with health education.

“It is so important for Action Cancer, with the support of Centra, to deliver our healthy lifestyle sessions and with our new-look programme we are looking forward to continuing to reach even more schoolchildren in the new term.”