By Spencer Sterritt

Stay healthy and informed at Nanaimo’s Walk With Your Doc event

May 12, 2017 | 5:26 PM

NANAIMO — Going for an early morning walk doesn’t have to be done alone.

Island Health’s annual Walk With Your Doc event is Saturday, May 13 at Maffeo Sutton Park starting at 10 a.m. where anyone can take a stroll with local doctors and other health-minded people.

Dr. Derek Poteryko, a local family physician and medical doctor of community health, said it’s an opportunity to get the exercise you need and also ask any pressing questions.

“We walk the walk and talk the talk,” he said. “We may still prompt you back to your physician…but we’re there to answer your health-related questions.”

Poteryko said sitting is the new smoking and they want to help keep Nanaimo residents as fit as possible. “It used to be an apple a day keeps the doctor away, now it’s an activity a day keeps the doctor farther away.”

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Twenty-one minutes of walking a day is recommended and Poteryko said walking is a great exercise for anyone looking to start getting in shape or keep their already fit bodies active.

Though the event started happening province-wide in 2010, people have walked with their doctors in Nanaimo since 2006 and it has become a weekly event every Saturday, 10 a.m. at Maffeo Sutton Park.

spencer.sterritt@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @spencer_sterrit