Obesity among school age children is on the rise. Modern kids would rather be eating burgers and playing computer games than burning off the lard by climbing up chimneys and working in textile mills. What’s to be done?

Well one part of the legacy of the 2012 London Olympics is going to be “a modern world-class rowing and flat-water canoeing centre”. Rowing’s great exercise and youngsters do love splashing about in the water. The lake, is a 2,200m, eight-lane course with a separate return lane constructed to international standards and promises to be a terrific community facility. Dorney Lake will be hosting rowing and kayak events in the Olympic and Paralympic Games. It’s got full disabled access as well which is wonderfully inclusive.

East London’s school kids will be thrilled to have such an exciting playground on their doorstep.

Or they would be if it was anywhere near them. Very wisely the government and the Olympic planners have decided that a facility like that should be provided for some of the most maligned and under-privileged young wraiths in Britain. That’s why it sited at Eton College. As part of the long term therapeutic support for these vulnerable children the lake sits in 450 acres of parkland to give them respite from the urban squalor of their normal surroundings. Readers of this site will be unanimous in hoping that this type of provision continues to be funded no matter how tight the next few government budgets are.

According to the website the lake is privately-owned by Eton College. It is managed by Dorney Lake Trust, the registered charity which operates the Lake site. So the next time you want to help a children’s charity just remember that there are more options than the NSPCC.