In the UK it was found that an even greater proportion, 36%, of adults were not sufficiently active. This meant they didn’t hit the recommended level of at least 150 minutes a week of moderate activity like walking, or 75 minutes of vigorous activity like running.

Stats from the study by researchers from the World Health Organisation (WHO) and published in The Lancet Global Health journal also revealed that fewer men than women in the UK were insufficiently active, 32% compared with 40% – a trend that was also noted elsewhere.

Levels of inactivity were more than twice as high in high-income countries (37%) than in low-income countries (16%). One of the regions displaying an increase in insufficient activity over the period was high-income Western countries, which is probably explained by more desk jobs and the transport people use to get around. Commenting on the report, Dr Melody Ding from the University of Sydney wrote, “While declines in occupational and domestic physical activity are inevitable it is essential to incentivise transport and leisure-time physical activity”. If you’re falling short of the targets, perhaps it’s time to buy a commuter bike and start cycling to work?

In an effort to address the problem, the WHO launched an action plan in June this year which detailed 20 policy areas to create more active societies. This includes areas like building and maintaining cycling and walking infrastructure, and providing facilities for recreational sports.

How much exercise you should do differs between individuals, and the benefits of it are also far greater than just looking after your long-term physical health. That said, if you are worried about your own levels of activity then hitting the 150 minutes a week of moderate exercise target is a great place to start.

This level of aerobic exercise will help with your cardiovascular health, but the NHS also advises doing two strength workouts a week that hit all the major muscle groups. If you’re not sure what that involves, this strength workout for beginners ticks the required boxes.

An injured sea turtle is examined by Sea Turtle Rescue Center (DEKAMER) officials upon her arrival to the centre at Iztuzu Beach near Dalyan in Mugla province, Turkey, July 18, 2018. REUTERS/Umit Bektas

Already beguiled by the 4 km (2.5 mile) stretch of sand, which forms a natural barrier between the Mediterranean Sea and the reed-lined freshwater inlets of the Dalyan river, she set up home there in the 1980s and soon fell in love with the turtles.

Three decades later the 95-year-old Englishwoman still has a shed overlooking Iztuzu beach, which she has campaigned to protect from developers and to preserve as a natural environment where the threatened turtles can breed.

June Haimoff, known as Captain June, poses for a photo in her hut at Iztuzu Beach near Dalyan in Mugla province, Turkey, August 1, 2018. REUTERS/Umit Bektas

“When I first saw a sea turtle laying eggs, I watched without moving. I remember tears in my eyes,” she said. “From that day I started to collect any kind of information about them that I could.”

In 1987, Haimoff and a group of friends fought successfully to block a hotel construction project which would have endangered the turtles’ breeding ground on the beach.

Since then the beach has remained under protection. All construction is banned as well as artificial lighting at night, when holiday makers are kept away and the turtles come ashore to lay their eggs.

When Haimoff started her campaign, the number of turtle nests on the beach had fallen to 200. Now it stands at 500, meaning that 20,000 baby turtles take to the sea every year.

The loggerhead turtles, along with green turtles which also live along Turkey’s coastline, are two of the nine types of turtle in the Mediterranean. The animals, which date back 150 million years, have a lifespan of 100 to 150 years.

After its conservation success, Iztuzu also became a regional focus for turtles, with the establishment 10 years ago of the Sea Turtle Rescue Center, which treats injured turtles from beaches across Turkey.

The group’s president, Yakup Kaska, who first volunteered at Iztuzu in the early days of the conservation project, says the main threats the turtles face are getting struck by boat propellers, swallowing or getting tangled in fishing lines, and eating clear plastic items which they mistake for jellyfish.

Haimoff, fondly known as “Captain June” because of her love of the sea, teaches visitors about those threats to the turtles, and trains her young students in environmental preservation.

“I’m a woman in love with the turtles,” she says.