When we launch the BSLM Learning Academy this summer it will be the start of an exciting new chapter for our society.

The Academy will be the UKs leading learning institution for lifestyle medicine - the place where clinicians, healthcare professionals, researchers, and eventually the public will go to learn about lifestyle medicine and its life saving potential.

We have recently appointed a company to develop the Academy's online Learning Management System and a team of Learning Associates are already busy developing educational content.

To fully realise our ambitions for the Academy we will need to significantly increase our revenue.

The Learning Management System has cost £40,000 to procure but we cannot run a professional academy without it. The LMS is therefore a crucial part of our strategy to reach out to more groups, reduce health isolation and inequality, and develop a public facing project to maximise the positive impact on society.

But because the Academy's ultimate aim is to spread the wider health benefits of lifestyle medicine to the public we are also seeking to generate some income from fundraising activities from our members' networks and the wider public.

Which is hopefully where you can help.

To kick things off we want to encourage a flurry of fundraising around Lifestyle Medicine Week, May 30th to June 5th. Let's ensure the week becomes as widely known as others out there.

I do hope you could also consider a fundraiser of your own for BSLM. As 2021 also marks the fifth anniversary of BSLM why not give your challenge a five related theme? You could run five miles, walk for five hours or cycle 500 miles!

Please do whatever you feel comfortable with (it may start with just #1change) and most importantly don't forget to tell us about it! All funds raised during the week will help to pay the cost of the Academy's Learning Management System.

Give us a mention on social media (use the hashtags #LMWeek, #1change and #lifestylemedicine) and get in touch with the BSLM office to tell us about your plans. It would be brilliant if you could record a short video telling us what you're doing.

Good luck and thank you!