The Fit City competition, organised by the Oxford Health Alliance, was an international competition for young people designed to provoke thought and discussion about the impact that urban environments have on our health. The competition encouraged young people, aged 18-27, to submit their ideas or examples that demonstrated aspects of healthy urban environments or healthy urban design. Submissions included photos, videos, songs, sounds, drawings, art, designs, poetry, and writing. Examples that demonstrated aspects of unhealthy urban environments or design were also accepted.

Five winners were selected by a panel of judges, and each winner was awarded a free trip to Sydney, Australia where they were invited to showcase their work, and the work of their peers at the Oxford Health Alliance annual summit on global health.

The Oxford Health Alliance (OxHA), London, is a public-private partnership committed to finding innovative solutions to the world’s largest preventable health problem - the global epidemic of chronic diseases - by addressing the risk factors of unhealthy diet, physical inactivity and tobacco use. OxHA brings together a cross-section of society to determine the role employers, governments, NGOs, businesses, urban planners, economists and young people can play in helping to make the healthy choices the easy choices. For more information: www.oxha.org

Entrants to the Fit City competition were also invited to join the 3FOUR50* network, an awareness raising and action based online social network aimed at preventing chronic disease. The network is open to anyone with an interest in confronting the epidemic of chronic disease. To find out more or join the network, vist www.3four50.com

*The name 3FOUR50 is derived from: 3 risk factors (smoking, physical inactivity, and poor diet), which cause four chronic diseases (heart disease, lung disease, type 2 diabetes and many cancers) that account for 50% of the world’s deaths.