Beat the Street participants in Swindon have reached the 200,000 mile mark as the initiative enters its Go Wild week. 

The new theme started yesterday with the aim of encouraging people in the town to explore their local parks, waterways, and green spaces. 

This is the third time Swindon has played Beat the Street and participants have walked, cycled, and rolled more than 200,000 miles at the halfway point in the six-week game. 

More than 28,000 people are playing and clocking up active travel miles with the aim of getting fitter, spending time with friends and family in green spaces and completing for prizes. 

Team Hope leads the community teams and was set up by keen runner Caroline Matthews as one of her children daughter Hope has a Mitochondrial disease, a condition which occurs when mitochondria are not able to provide the energy the cells need to work properly. 

Their 50 players are using their Beat the Street daily runs to help raise awareness of Hope’s condition during Mitochondrial Disease Awareness month. 

While tapping the Beat Boxes around the town, Team Hope has been leaving handcrafted crocheted butterflies with messages with poems and information for people to find to raise awareness and direct people to the Lily Foundation which is a charity that supports families affected by the condition.

Caroline said: “Each butterfly has a message attached to say ‘I’m not lost, I’m just alone, if I make you smile, please take me home’ and lots of them have been found by Beat the Street players and shared on various social platforms. 

“I am also very proud of the fact that Team Hope has bought together runners from every running club in Swindon.”

Sarah Cotton, the support and development officer at Community Pharmacy Swindon and Wiltshire, is also playing. She is in a community team that supports all pharmacies and their teams to deliver the best possible NHS services to patients in this area.  

She said: “Community pharmacy is always working to support and advise the public in making healthy life choices, so we thought it was a great opportunity for us to be part of Beat the Street, as a local health initiative.

“We are having a lot of fun joining in the game across Swindon, as the CPSW Team."  

“My children are getting very competitive now I’m on a different team to them – they are supporting Lainesmead Primary School!  

“Our community pharmacist Robert, from Ashington Way Pharmacy, is currently winning within our team, and is setting a personal score that will be very hard to catch!”

Haydonleigh Primary School is at the top of the total points leaderboard while Fish in the Percolator leads the average points leaderboard.

There are double points available on certain Beat Boxes over the weekend, plus a Nature Bingo event at Queen’s Park on Saturday and Sunday.

There are also three Poles in the Park sessions in locations across the town where Beat the Street players can take part in a free Swindon WALX urban pole walking taster session to find out how using walking poles can improve the health benefits of your walk.

Beat the Street is run by Swindon Borough Council working in partnership with Wiltshire and Swindon Sport, and Swindon Healthy Schools. It is delivered by Intelligent Health.

Coun Brian Ford, the cabinet member for adults and health, said: “We’re delighted to support the Beat the Street programme and it’s great to see people out exercising and exploring new areas. 

“It’s amazing how we tend to stick to the same tried and tested routes and how the game has opened up the idea of exploring the town on foot, which reveals new areas and parks you might not have known about, even if you’ve lived here for years.

“Beat the Street is a positive and community-focused way of encouraging people to get more active, by walking, cycling, rolling and wheeling around our wonderful town.”