Action Cancer launch schools competition

HEALTHY SCHOOLS CALLED TO ACTION

–      Centra and Action Cancer team up to launch annual awards –

SCHOOLS across Northern Ireland are being encouraged to enter Action Cancer’s Health Action Awards, which are sponsored by retail group Centra.

The awards, which take place on June 3 at the Odyssey Arena, Belfast, recognise healthy schools across Northern Ireland.  Schools, nurseries and colleges can enter, whether they provide healthy meal options in their cafeteria, promote extra fruit and water in school, are involved in extra-curricular exercise programmes, or run cancer awareness initiatives.

There are Gold, Silver and Bronze Awards for nursery, primary and secondary schools.

A prize of £200 is also up for grabs, for purchasing school equipment, and will be awarded to the highest scoring pre-school or nursery, as well as each of the top scoring primary schools, secondary schools or colleges in each of the five Education and Library Boards.

Schools, nurseries and colleges can get entry forms by contacting Action Cancer on 028 9080 3344 or online at www.actioncancer.org Completed Health Action Award forms must be returned to Action Cancer by 28^th March 2014 and successful schools will be notified at the end of April 2014.

Lucy McCusker, PR and Events Officer at Action Cancer said, “This is the 12^th year of the awards and we are always greatly encouraged  that the schools take the health and well-being of their pupils so seriously.  We’re encouraging as many schools as possible to enter before the deadline.”

Nikki McDowell, Centra’s Brand Manager said, “These awards are part of Action Cancer’s Health Action programme, which features a range of health promotion sessions for nurseries, schools and colleges. Centra is proud to have supported the project since 2003, with retailers and their customers raising over £800,000 in that time.”

Centra is part of Musgrave Retail Partners NI (MRPNI) which supports over 250 independent retail stores in Northern Ireland, including SuperValu and Mace, with a combined turnover in excess of £600 million.  MRPNI is part of the Musgrave Group, the leading partner to more than 3,500 entrepreneurial retailers and food service professionals in the UK, Ireland and Spain.