A £2.3 million project aimed at getting women and girls into sport and living a healthier lifestyle has been a huge success after more than 9,000 signed up.

New figures show that since the I Will If You Will (IWIYW) initiative was started in Bury — with a big fanfare launch at Close Park, Radcliffe, in September 2013 — one in 10 of all females in the borough have taken part.

Sports England spent the cash in Bury as part of a pilot project to boost health and fitness in the area, with a view to extending it across the country.

Bury's IWIYW ambassadors include England netball team coach Tracey Neville and Coronation Street star Jennie McAlpine.

In total, there have been 7,741 sessions in activities such as rounders, netball, yoga, running and walking — an average of 337 meetings a month, typically lasting 30 minutes.

Figures show 10,723 people took part of whom 9,639 were female — enough to almost fill Bury Football Club’s Gigg Lane stadium.

The participants turned up a total of 65,652 times and the average group size was just in excess of eight people.

One in three participants were so impressed by their first experience of IWIYW that they have continued going every week or fortnight.

The Bury Council report, which was put before its health scrutiny committee, indicated that IWIYW could become even more popular as word-of-mouth recommendations spread and feedback is taken on board, and ideas such as loyalty rewards have been introduced, using a mobile phone app called Bounts.

“The programme is now focusing on sessions which Bury residents have stated they want to do, as opposed to flooding the market with different offers,” the report said.

The report added: "The early part of the programme saw high levels of engagement with people from all age groups, particularly the 14-19 age group, mostly due involvement of schools.

“Since January, however, the 30 to 44 and 45 to 59 age categories are more engaged and are consistently the highest attenders, with high numbers of those coming regularly.”

The figures show that 266 participants are aged under 13, 1,572 are aged 14 to 19, 1,898 are aged 30 to 44 and 626 are over 65s. Just 216 are aged 60 to 64.

The number of ethnic minority participants also reflect the make-up of the borough as whole, with 476 Asian women and girls taking part.

Elton has the highest uptake with 736 participants and Sedgley has the lowest uptake of 223.

The next step for project bosses is to encourage participants to become volunteers and coaches and making IWIYW profitable by working with brands such as sportswear firms.

The council's communities representative, Cllr Jane Lewis, said: "When Bury was chosen to pilot the programme we were overjoyed.

"Bury women and girls have really got on board with IWIYW and it's great to see they're really feeling the benefits.

"We've gathered some great stories from some really inspirational ladies, who've managed to take that first step, break down the barriers and realise a more active lifestyle."