Wellness Wednesday: Health Flavour of the Month: March

University of Kent Occupational Health and Wellbeing Manager, Brenda Brunsdon

By |

March is a very busy month for health and wellbeing initiatives. Below is a list of the various campaigns.

  • Ovarian Cancer Awareness Month: ovarian cancer is a disease where symptoms are subtle and often go unnoticed until the disease process is advanced. This makes it harder to treat successfully. The month-long promotion is organised by ovarian.org.uk. They are promoting a 295 000 Step Challenge to raise money for this charity.
  • Prostate Cancer Awareness Month: 1 in 8 men in the UK will develop prostate cancer. The Prostate Cancer UK challenge is called ‘March the Month’ and is to walk 11 000 steps a day as a fund-raising exercise.
  • Walk All Over Cancer Month: promoted by Cancer Research UK to get people moving, which helps prevent them developing cancer, and to raise funds for Cancer Research at the same time.
  • University Mental Health Day, 03 March: University Mental Health Day brings together the university community to make mental health a university-wide priority and create ongoing year-round change to the future of student mental health. To read more about Mental Health support available for staff, follow this link to last week’s blog article.
  • No More Week, 06-12 March: NO MORE Week is an annual, international opportunity to come together to raise awareness of domestic abuse and sexual violence, inspiring individuals, organisations, and communities to make change. The awareness focus this year is on #JoinTheChorus. For more information on how to get involved, go to their webpages.
  • National Feet Week, 07-13 March: the aim of this campaign is to encourage people to prioritise their foot health in the same way they would dental health or vision care.
  • National No Smoking Day, 09 March: this day, encouraging smokers to quit, has been a feature of the health promotion calendar since 1984! In the UK, it is now linked to the British Heart Foundation; more information on the reasons to give up smoking can be found on their website. Or access information on the NHS website.
  • World Kidney Day: 10 March: promoted by worldkidneyday.org.uk, this focus of this day is to spread awareness of how big an issue kidney disease is and how many people and their families are affected. 1 in 9 people worldwide suffer from kidney disease.
  • World Salt Awareness Week, 14-20 March: overuse of salt in our diets is implicated in many health problems. It is particularly associated with the development of high blood pressure and heart disease. The theme for this year, promoted by World Action on Salt is ‘Shake the Habit!’.
  • Debt Awareness Week, 21-27 March: It is a fact that anyone can fall into debt – and for all kinds of reasons. Debt Awareness Week 2022 is all about helping people open up and get the help they need. The organisation’s aim is to help people feel comfortable asking for the help they need, and ease any worries they may have about being judged, or feeling ashamed or embarrassed.
  • Neurodiversity Celebration Week, 21-27 March: Neurodiversity is the concept that all humans vary in terms of their neurocognitive ability. Everyone has talents and things they struggle with – we’re all familiar with that part! However, for some people, the variation between those strengths and weaknesses is more pronounced, which can bring talent but can also be disabling. To learn more, follow the link.
  • Tick Bite Prevention Week 22-27 March: Do you know anything about ticks and how they spread disease? Then maybe you should learn more in Tick Bite Prevention Week! Ticks are small, spiderlike, blood-sucking parasites that fasten themselves on to the skin of mammals, usually in the area of the feet and legs. This usually occurs when walking in the countryside in spring and summer. The ticks carry diseases which they pass to the host when they bite

Leave a Reply