This Girl Can Week - Alison Cooper | Latest news

 

This week is This Girl Can Week, the campaign encourages women and girls of all shapes, sizes, abilities and backgrounds to get active. Throughout the week we will be sharing stories from our female Councillors. Today we hear from Cllr Alison Cooper.

" I always struggled with my weight and having been bullied at school, and even verbally abused by my sports teacher, I became convinced I was no good at sports. It wasn’t until later in life that I realised the negative impact this mindset created.

I’ve always been active and running around after 3 children and working quite a few jobs, I didn’t consider myself inactive. In reality I was just unfit.

A few years ago I took up swimming again, but through necessity in lockdown my love for walking has grown and although I suffer with arthritic knees and foot problems it has been my life saver.  It would be so much easier to give in to the pain and come up with reasons not to do something, but the realisation that you need to use it or lose it motivates me daily.

My message to anyone is do not be put off by others, keeping active will pay dividends when you get older and ward off many illnesses. I wish I had done more earlier, but it's never too late. Little and often makes you able to feel the benefits within a short timescale.  We live in such a beautiful place, its a privilege to be out and about daily."