It doesn’t matter how they do it, how they look doing it, or even how sweaty they get – Sport England’s This Girl Can campaign is a simple but effective way of getting more women active. Clare Freeman reports.

Mother-of-two Jodie Gibson took up running after the birth of her second child and a year later she has just run her first half-marathon.

The 28-year-old from Rochester said: “I had post-natal depression and I didn’t want to go on medication so I thought I’d try another method. And it’s worked. It’s done me wonders. I’ve also lost three stone. I’m so much healthier than I’ve ever been.”

The This Girl Can advertising campaign is aimed at getting women just like Jodie involved in sporting activities.

Funded by the National Lottery and developed by Sport England, it features women of all ages, from 67-year-old Sue who took up cold water swimming, to teenagers Bleta and Londrita who are the only girls in their jiu jitsu group.

Jodie started running with Beginners 2 Runners on their Couch to 5k course and now manages her own group in Walderslade and Gravesend. Her advice to others is: “Just go and do it, don’t be worried.”

She said: “You’ll always make friends – I’ve made lifelong friends.

“It’s nice to have that hour away. You don’t have to think about anything, you don’t have to be a mum or a wife, you can just be yourself and enjoy doing something active.”

Sports minister Tracey Crouch has been involved in the campaign. The mum-of-one is just as much at home on the football pitch as she is in the halls of Westminster.

Since retiring from playing football, she has become an FA-qualified football coach and manages Chatham’s Meridian Girls football team.

But her enthusiasm for sport is not limited to football, and she is regularly found trying out new sports and encouraging others to be active.

Speaking before the general election was called, she said: “The whole aim of this campaign is effectively to show people it doesn’t matter what shape, size or age you are, there is something out there for you to do to keep active.

“I turn 42 this year. I want to see advertising campaigns that are relatable to middle-aged women.”

The campaign has been adopted by many sports clubs and group, as well as individuals, who share pictures and videos of themselves being active at #ThisGirlCan.

Women from the Medway Rebel Runners are among them. Thirty from the group have adopted the #thisgirlcan slogan, including Mandy Brown, 41, who took up the Couch to 5k challenge in 2016 to help her lose weight. Angela Adams, 37, completed the same challenge while recovering from cancer earlier this year.

Wendy Regan, 42, lost 26 stone and ran this year’s London marathon, while Sara Jayne Beaney, 42, recovered from a serious back injury to run the marathon last year.

The campaign also showcases non-traditional sports, such as roller derby or rock climbing, as well as sports that are not always associated with women, such as rugby or boxing.

Miss Crouch said: “The campaign focuses on a variety of things to show you can do stuff. There are also mums using their babies as part of their exercise.”

The Chatham and Aylesford MP had baby Freddie last year. She said: “That was one of the things I found after I had Freddie, that there aren’t that many options for new mums to do and this is a way of actually doing something with your baby involved.”

As well as improving women’s physical health, Miss Crouch said an active lifestyle can also help improve women’s mental health and their confidence. She said: “One of the barriers to sport, is that women are worried about how they look or that people will judge them for how they look. This Girl Can aims to break down that barrier.

“Don’t worry about how you look, it’s how you feel afterwards. Zumba is a classic example. You can be that person at the back, like me, who has no co-ordination whatsoever and it makes you feel good for the rest of the week.”

Medway’s Paralympic Gold Medal winner Charlotte Evans is a supporter of the campaign.

She said: “It’s great seeing confident strong girls doing what they enjoy and embracing all the highs and lows that come with exercise and sport including the sweat, tears and in my case helmet hair’.”