A new free walk aimed at improving physical and mental wellbeing is being launched in Brentwood this week.

Brentwood Borough Council is working in partnership with Brentwood Leisure Trust’s Fitness in Mind project to provide the health walk. It is part of the Council’s Mental Health Challenge and supports local organisations to provide services to people with mental ill health.

The walk takes place every Wednesday, starting today, leaving from The Brentwood Leisure Centre at 6pm.

Walking for Health, run by the Ramblers and Macmillan Cancer Support, is a nationwide movement dedicated to improving the nation’s health through walking. The walks are free, short, friendly, local and are run by fully trained walk leader volunteers.

As well as the physical benefits, walking can help with stress, anxiety and depression and is a fantastic way to improve both physical and emotional wellbeing.

A walker who takes part in the health walks, Linda, said: “Some of the things you might come across on the Fitness In Mind evening walk are: swallowing a bug; a leafy alleyway; sun shining through a green screen of leaves; finding a fishery; seeing a deer; picking your way around a giant puddle; houses out in the sticks like an old American small-town; or waist-high rapeseed.

You don’t have to go half way across the world to enjoy the pleasures of nature, just the Brentwood Centre. Off we go!”