Britain’s largest walking community, Ramblers, has re-named its Walking for Health sessions as Ramblers Wellbeing Walks.

This rebranding covers all health walks run by the Ramblers, including those in Okehampton and Tavistock, though the walking charity has confirmed that it is a change in name only and will not otherwise affect any of the walks.

The newly-named Wellbeing Walks is an England-wide scheme designed to be accessible for all abilities and age groups in order to encourage those less able to feel the benefits of physical exercise.

The walking scheme is England’s largest health walk scheme and across the country there are currently 160 Wellbeing Walks schemes, 1,500 weekly walking groups, 65,000 participants and 6,000 trained walk volunteers.

It has become so successful that health professionals have prescribed the walking groups for people suffered from a wide range of illnesses and disabilities including cancer, heart disease, dementia and those with limited mobility as a way to get active.

Anyone is able to set up a Wellbeing Walk though the Ramblers advise that the new walking group be regular, short, easy and led by a trained volunteer.

The Ramblers Association, the Ramblers predecessor, was set up in 1935 to campaign for walkers’ rights as more and more common land became privately owned, preventing walkers from accessing their favourite routes.

Today the charity works to provide everyone with the chance to enjoy walks and in keeping with its original aim, campaigns to keep the countryside open to everyone.

Visit https://beta.ramblers.org.uk/go-walking/wellbeing-walks-groups for more information.