Moving to do good while helping research

Ten thousand steps and more. Walking, running, cycling, swimming, gardening… In this back-to-school period, how do you find the motivation to resume regular physical activity or continue on your active summer streak? An initiative born in Australia in 2010, of which this is the fourth edition in France, the Steptember challenge offers an original possibility of taking 10,000 steps (or more) daily, while helping to finance research on a frequent and little-known pathology which hinders movement, cerebral palsy.

Result of a lesion of the brain occurring most often in the prenatal period or at birth, it is the first cause of motor handicap in children. Some 1,500 newborns are affected each year in France. Cerebral palsy results in more or less severe motor deficits of one or more limbs. Difficulties with gestures of daily living and walking can be accentuated by abnormal movements, disorders of coordination and tone, and other frequently associated impairments.

daily goals

On a model close to events like the race of heroes, where participants pay a registration fee to take the start of a race (non-competitive), and invite their loved ones to support them by donations to an association, Steptember combines a challenge sports and charity. With two particularities: the operation lasts the whole month of September and it is virtual.

On the sports level, the “steppers” define their daily objective of physical activity individually or by team (for example 10,000 steps) and fill in their data in real time on the Steptember website or a mobile app. In addition to the steps obtained by traditional walking or running, the application allows you to convert time spent in many other activities into steps. The most diverse: swimming, cycling, martial arts, but also gardening, playing with your pet… And the most inclusive, too, with, for example, walking while pushing a wheelchair, wheelchair sports, or even boccia – discipline related to petanque and registered in the Paralympic Games.

From childhood, Emmy had felt that “something was wrong on the left side”. But she had never heard the words “cerebral palsy”

To give advice to participants, the Cerebral Palsy Foundation, which organizes Steptember in France, has selected four coaches, including two children, themselves affected by this pathology. So Emmy, a 39-year-old woman of Welsh origin, with an atypical medical background. From childhood, she had felt that “something was wrong on the left side”. Her arm was a little stiff, she couldn’t put her heel down. And she fell often. But she had never heard the words “cerebral palsy”. It was not until early adulthood that the diagnosis was made: hemiparesis (incomplete hemiplegia), with visual impairment.

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