NHS England to Launch 'Marathon a Month' Walking Scheme with Rewards

NHS England is set to launch a scheme early next year that will reward people for walking roughly 30 minutes a day, which adds up to a marathon a month. Users will log walks through a phone or smartwatch and become eligible for incentives and discounts. The scheme, developed with Great North Run founder Sir Brendan Foster, aims to sign up over 100,000 people.

The NHS is getting into the rewards business, and all it wants in return is 30 minutes of your day.

NHS England is set to launch a new scheme early next year that will give people incentives and discounts for walking every single day, the BBC first reported. The idea is simple: walk for around half an hour a day, every day for a month, and you will have covered roughly 26 miles, the same distance as a marathon. Do that, and you become eligible for rewards.

It is being called a "marathon a month" challenge, and according to the BBC, it is the first time a scheme backed by the health service has offered people something tangible in return for exercising.

How it works

Participants will log their walks through their phone, a smartwatch, or an online platform. The daily distance does not have to be covered all at once. Thirty minutes spread across the day counts, which means a walk to the station in the morning and a short evening stroll could together tick the box.

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Hit the target every day for a month and the NHS says you will be eligible for rewards. The exact nature of those rewards has not been confirmed yet, with full details expected in the coming months. What has been indicated, per the BBC's reporting, is that incentives and discounts are on the table, with vouchers among the options being explored. Sir Keith Mills, founder of Air Miles and the Nectar loyalty card scheme, is part of the team designing how the rewards structure will work.

What the NHS has been clear about is that it will not be funding the rewards itself. The initial set-up is NHS-backed, but corporate and philanthropic partners are expected to come in and run the incentives side as the scheme scales up.

Why the NHS is doing this

The numbers behind the scheme make for uncomfortable reading. Physical inactivity is linked to one in six deaths in England. Nearly a quarter of adults, around 12 million people, do less than 30 minutes of moderate activity per week, according to Sport England data for the year to November 2025 cited by the BBC. That is the threshold below which a person is classified as physically inactive.

The scheme is part of the NHS's 10-year health plan for England and was developed in partnership with Sir Brendan Foster, Olympic medallist and founder of the Great North Run.

Foster told the BBC the health gains from even modest daily walking were significant. Walk for 30 minutes five days a week, and research suggested a person could add up to four years of healthy life.

The streak angle

One of the more deliberate design choices behind the scheme is its borrowing from app culture. The team is counting on streak behaviour, the same psychology that keeps people opening Duolingo or Snapchat every day just to avoid breaking their run, to keep participants coming back. Foster told the BBC this habit-forming dynamic was central to how they hoped the challenge would work.

The target is to sign up more than 100,000 people. If that number is hit, Foster told the BBC it would count as the largest marathon in history by participation, even if nobody is running.

This story is based on reporting by BBC News.