Strictly judge visits Bristol McDonald’s to launch staff mental wellbeing programme

Strictly Come Dancing star Dame Darcey Bussell surprised customers at a Bristol branch of McDonald’s when she visited the restaurant and put staff through a few dance moves.

McDonald’s Fishponds franchisee Laura Wilder, is the first franchisee across the UK to introduce mental wellbeing programme Move-Assure, as a free benefit to all of her restaurant employees.

Founded by Dame Darcey, Dr Peter Lovatt and Lindsey Lovatt, Move-Assure is an online mental wellbeing programme centred around using dance and movement as a solution for people to start looking after their own mental wellbeing.

To celebrate the launch of Move-Assure to her employees, Laura hosted Dame Darcey at her McDonald’s Fishponds restaurant to introduce the programme to staff.

The event involved an introduction into the course and its health benefits as well as taking staff through the dance routines that are offered within the programme.

To show their support of the Move-Assure launch, the team were also joined at the event by Councillor Lorraine Francis, Mark Goodway, the Founder and CEO of the Matthew Tree Project and Bev Course, who manages the Fishponds Baptist Church Soup Run team.

Southwest McDonald’s franchisees Mike Guerin, Paul Pearson, Amanda Toner and Reema Mavani, also showed their local support and were all inspired by the programme that Laura is generously offering to her employees.

McDonald’s franchisee Laura Wilder, who owns and operates McDonald’s Fishponds, said: “I am so proud to be the first UK franchisee to offer the Move-Assure programme as a free benefit to my employees. Offering practical advice and activities to help develop their resilience around mental wellbeing is so important with the current rise of mental health issues. I want to ensure that my staff feel most supported and hope that the programme is one solution for that.”

Dame Darcey Bussell said: “I really applaud Laura’s decision to use movement to support her employees wellbeing. Movement to music is scientifically proven to offer so many health benefits, both physical and mental, to everybody. We had a great time introducing the programme to the team at McDonald’s Fishponds.”