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William Bird is a general practitioner in
Bird set up health walks from his practice in Sonning Common and then worked with the
Intelligent Health
a limited company he founded in 2006 to promote physical activity. In 2012 it delivered part of the Olympic Legacy for NHS London called
My Best Move
where Dr Bird trained General Practitioners in London about physical activity. It also delivers the physical activity initiativ
Beat The Street
in the UK and worldwide.
Reading, Berkshire
Reading ( ) is a town and borough in Berkshire, Southeast England, southeast England. Located in the Thames Valley at the confluence of the rivers River Thames, Thames and River Kennet, Kennet, the Great Western Main Line railway and the M4 mot ...
, England. He has set up schemes to encourage people in the United Kingdom to exercise in order to promote good health, and he was appointed MBE for his contributions to health and physical activity in the Queen's New Year Honours 2010
The New Year Honours 2010 were announced on 31 December 2009 in the United Kingdom, New Zealand, Cook Islands, Barbados, Grenada, Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands, Saint Lucia, Belize, Antigua and Barbuda, Saint Christopher and NevisSaint Christ ...
. In 2009 he was nominated by ''The Independent on Sunday
''The Independent'' is a British online newspaper. It was established in 1986 as a national morning printed paper. Nicknamed the ''Indy'', it began as a broadsheet and changed to tabloid format in 2003. The last printed edition was publishe ...
'' as one of the 100 people to make people happy in Britain.
Health forecasting
Bird helped to set up ahealth forecasting
{{Unreferenced, date=October 2012
Health forecasting is a new health care discipline initiated by the Met Office when Dr William Bird, a GP, became its first clinical director in 2002. It is currently the subject of an innovative project run joi ...
unit at the Met Office
The Meteorological Office, abbreviated as the Met Office, is the United Kingdom's national weather service. It is an executive agency and trading fund of the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy and is led by CEO Penelope E ...
where he was clinical director for five years. The forecasts help the public and health professionals plan for of weather-related illness.
Green Gym
Bird set up the firstGreen Gym The Conservation Volunteers' Green Gym programme aims to provide people with a way to enhance their fitness and health while taking action to improve the outdoor environment. It can be seen as enabling people to get fit who would not normally attend ...
at Sonning Common
Sonning Common is a village and civil parish in a relatively flat, former common land part of the Chiltern Hills in South Oxfordshire, centred west south-west of Henley-on-Thames and north of Reading.
History
During the English Civil War th ...
, Oxfordshire in 1998 to promote physical activity and well-being in the participants who volunteer to work on environmental or conservation projects. Working with BTCV
The Conservation Volunteers (TCV) is a British community volunteering charity focused on environmental conservation through practical tasks undertaken by volunteers. Until 1 May 2012, it traded as BTCV – British Trust for Conservation Volunte ...
the scheme now has about 100 centres in the UK and one in Australia.
Walking initiatives
Bird set up health walks from his practice in Sonning Common and then worked with the Countryside Agency
The Countryside Agency was a statutory body set up in England in 1999 with the task of improving the quality of the rural environment and the lives of those living in it. The agency was dissolved in 2006 and its functions dispersed among other bod ...
and the British Heart Foundation
The British Heart Foundation (BHF) is a cardiovascular research charity in the United Kingdom. It funds medical research related to heart and circulatory diseases and their risk factors, and runs influencing work aimed at shaping public policy ...
to expand it nationally. The aim is to have a nationwide network where every GP can recommend a local walk for those inactive patients who need to become more active.
In 2012 Bird started the Beat the Street International Walk to School Competition. The challenge encouraged children to walk to school, and compete with schools around the world to walk the greatest total distance. Bird said he started the challenge, funded by London Legacies 2012, "to help reduce congestion, improve their health and interact with other children around the world." Following the initial success of the competition, Beat the Street has now been launched in more towns and cities with 1,000,000 participants worldwide.
Business
Bird is CEO oIntelligent Health
a limited company he founded in 2006 to promote physical activity. In 2012 it delivered part of the Olympic Legacy for NHS London called
My Best Move
where Dr Bird trained General Practitioners in London about physical activity. It also delivers the physical activity initiativ
Beat The Street
in the UK and worldwide.
Personal life
Bird is married to Annie. They have three children.Books
*William Bird, Veronica Reynolds: ''Walking for Health and Happiness.''Reader's Digest
''Reader's Digest'' is an American general-interest family magazine, published ten times a year. Formerly based in Chappaqua, New York, it is now headquartered in midtown Manhattan. The magazine was founded in 1922 by DeWitt Wallace and his wi ...
, 2002, .
*William Bird, Matilda van den Bosch, ''Oxford Textbook of Nature & Public Health'', Oxford University Press, 2018,
References
External links
*https://web.archive.org/web/20100127183746/http://www.greenerhealthcare.org:80/who-we-are {{DEFAULTSORT:Bird, William 21st-century British medical doctors Living people Members of the Order of the British Empire 1961 births