Project title: Moving More, Living Longer
Region: Sheffield, England
Award amount: £14,910
Award date: August 2026
In Sheffield, there is significant unmet demand for exercise referral among patients with cardiovascular risk factors. Local GP practices report a high prevalence of hypertension, type 2 diabetes and obesity; long waiting lists; and low male engagement. South Asian populations have significantly higher cardiovascular event rates than white European populations. Black African/Caribbean populations experience elevated hypertension risk with persistent underrepresentation in exercise referral services. Men are twice as likely as women to die from coronary heart disease before 75 years old.
Sheffield has an increased projected growth in exercise referral from 2,000 to 6,000 annually. Moving More, Living Longer will help with this growth and deliver exercise based sessions to those in the community.
Community Wellness Services are primarily targeting men from South Asian and black communities with hypertension, type 2 diabetes, obesity and/or physical inactivity. They will deliver six cohorts over a 12 month period, with the target of reaching over 100 people. Each cohort will receive weekly group exercise sessions, monthly heart health education workshops and individual goal setting consultations. The progress of participants will be supported through the use of the Holly Health App, a online habit forming app with a bank of behaviour change and healthy living information.
Moving More, Living Longer has a strong delivery team in place to ensure that the project is ran efficiently. This team consists of numerous Level 4 Exercise Specialists plus qualified specialists with expertise in hypertension, T2D, obesity and musculoskeletal conditions. The project will monitor its success through recording health measurements, pre, mid and post way through. These measures include blood pressure, weight, waist circumference, resting heart rate and mental wellbeing.
Community Wellness Services aim to remove all barriers to activity and always deliver sessions in community settings rather than gyms. With Heart Research UKs funding they will be delivering exercise referral to a new cohort in Sheffield’s most deprived priority neighbourhoods, with structured heart-health education and monitoring embedded throughout.