Gurgaon: The ‘Fit Gurgaon’ marathon, to be held at Cyber Hub on Oct 4, will become an annual event, with Fortis Hospital planning to use it as the flagship event of a wider citywide fitness and preventive health initiative.The ‘Fit Gurgaon’ programme will continue through the year with community yoga sessions, cycling rallies, functional fitness challenges, corporate wellness programmes, mental health sessions and preventive health screenings.Fortis plans to involve schools, families, corporates and local fitness communities in the initiative.Fitness icon and endurance athlete Milind Soman has been named the campaign’s brand ambassador. Registrations for the marathon open on Aug 22.Yash Rawat, senior vice-president and SBU head, Fortis Hospital Gurgaon, said the initiative was being launched against the backdrop of a high burden of lifestyle-related health risks in Gurgaon.Rawat told TOI, “A Haryana govt health survey conducted between April and Dec 2025 covered nearly five lakh people in Gurgaon. According to the figures cited by him, around 13% of those surveyed were hypertensive and 23% diabetic.”He also cited ICMR data showing diabetes prevalence of around 18% in Gurgaon and urban areas of Haryana, and said another ICMR study had found around 33% of the population in these areas to be obese.Rawat said Fortis already had a community health network that could be used to build the initiative. The hospital currently runs 37 on-site clinics in residential societies and RWAs across Gurgaon and sees around 33,000 people a month through these facilities, he said.Fortis also conducts three to five free health screening camps every Sunday and screens around 10,000 people annually through such camps, according to Rawat. The hospital conducts screenings for conditions including hypertension, diabetes and weight-related health risks.“Every year we will repeat this marathon in different shapes and forms, but our activities under this banner of Fit Gurgaon do not restrict us to only organising this marathon every year,” Rawat said.He said the hospital planned to work with communities to identify local health concerns and address them through preventive measures.Fortis Healthcare MD and CEO Ashutosh Raghuvanshi said the increasing burden of non-communicable and lifestyle-related diseases had made prevention a priority.“Through Fit Gurgaon, we aim to shift the healthcare narrative from reactive treatment to everyday preventive wellness,” he said.The initiative will culminate each year in the Fit Gurgaon Marathon, while other activities under the programme will continue throughout the year.
