The Vascular Physiology Unit at Great Ormond Street Hospital is involved in the MEND Programme (mind, exercise, nutrition and diet). This is one of the UK's most innovative and effective obesity prevention and treatment programmes for children, which, by the end of 2008 will be running at over 300 locations in the UK.
MEND's mission is to educate and motivate children and their parents to change unhealthy food habits to ones that support a healthier lifestyle and encourage them to take adequate exercise.
Great Ormond Street Hospital and the Institute of Child Health have been participating in the first studies and the Vascular Physiology Unit has carried out vascular monitoring of the children involved.