Next month RED January will celebrate its 10th anniversary. The national initiative encourages people to support their mental health by doing something active every day throughout the month. In this article, Calvin de Villiers - who is working with ConnectSport as part of its University programme to support the sport for development sector - spoke to RED January founder Hannah Beecham (pictured above).

Hi Hannah, thanks for speaking to ConnectSport. Can you tell me how the movement started please?

Of course, RED January started 10 years ago when I was inspired my incredible mum. She experiences depression, and she was going through particular low periods every winter, and it got me thinking about what was out there to support her at that time of year. And 10 years ago, there wasn’t really anything in the winter to give us that sense of community to get us up and moving. So I signed us up to a walking challenge and so we shared this goal of building up to something and slowly but surely, I saw my mum put one foot in front of the other. Ten years on the foundations of RED are still the same; it’s all around sharing that goal and choosing movement that you enjoy and works for your lifestyle. It started with me and my mum moving, working towards a goal and to see the impact it had on her, it was really powerful. 

Can you tell us what the name of RED represents?

RED now stands for ‘Rise Every Day’. The whole focus is around rising each day with the intention of moving in a way that works for you and makes you feel good. RED originally started as ‘Run Every Day’ and then we very quickly evolved it to moving everyday your way so that it was any form of movement. The RED community rightly felt really strongly that RED should stand for something, and Rise Every Day feels very representative. 

Do you have any plans to mark RED’s 10th anniversary in 2025?

RED January 2025 is the start of our 10th anniversary so it’s quite a big year for us next year! We have a few things that we’re exploring at the moment, but for me it’s really important that the whole community gets to celebrate it. I find around milestone moments often people host an event or do something like that but because inclusivity is at the heart of what we do, we want to make sure that everyone can be a part of it - no matter where you are in the country, no matter your background, age, ethnicity or disability. We will certainly have a few things going on in January to celebrate the RED community and everything that they have achieved as part of it as well. 

What specific thing are you most proud of over the last 10 years?

There have been so many things that we feel really proud of as a community, but the biggest thing for me is staying true to who we are throughout all of this. We talk about the movement that works for you and your lifestyle, let’s say ‘the small steps’, and maybe that’s not always the sexiest or coolest thing, but I’m really proud that we have never compromised on that. We have remained an initiative that empowers the individual to choose movement that works for them and their lifestyle. If we didn’t do that then it would go against everything on why this started. It started with my Mum, and I often think of what she needs from initiatives from RED, so that’s the thing I’m most proud of.

Why is it important for people to be active in the first month of the year?

The whole ‘new year, new me’ thing feels really outdated and puts a lot of pressure on people. We’d hate for anyone to step into a new year feeling pressured and setting unrealistic goals, or feeling like they have failed, so it’s really important to us that RED is very much about the individual. Also inactivity levels increase in the winter. Sport England conducted research last year which showed around 1.8 million adults experience less physical activity in the winter. There’s also more cases of people reporting feeling lower in mood, lower in energy, and if you do experience any mental health challenges your symptoms can potentially worsen like in my Mum’s case. So there’s a real need for initiatives like RED in the winter. We shouldn’t feel the way that we do currently and there’s things that we can do differentially, and I hope that RED is one part of supporting people through this time. 

What are your plans for RED over the next 10 years?

There are a few but one of them is around tailoring the messaging for different demographics. We would love to be exploring partnerships and building communities working with specific demographics to really make sure they are getting what they need from RED at that age, background or fitness ability. Secondly, it’s about expanding outside of the UK. We’re in our second year in Canada and we’re speaking to the Health Minister in Finland at the moment, and looking at how we can engage with northern hemisphere countries which experience pretty harsh winters. We know from the World Health Organisation across these regions that activity levels decrease in the winter so we’re exploring the role of RED. The ambition would be to step into a few more countries, shaping it with them and their communities. Those are two immediate things that we’ve got at the forefront of our mind. 

Thanks for speaking to ConnectSport, Hannah!

You can register for RED January as an individual or as a team, which could be your family or your workplace or sports club. Go to RED January to join the movement.