Premier Health and Fitness Centre, on Hylton Road, has split into two single-sex gyms, with a new male fitness centre opening a few doors down.

Manager Gurj Cheema who fitted the gym, has installed gyms all over the UK for celebrities such as Tom Cruise, Luke Goss and Jeffrey Archer.

Gurj, 30, from Whitburn, said: "I used to work for Carlo Citrone in Newcastle. His dad, Jonny, used to be Mr Universe, and I used to fit gyms with them.

"We fitted one for Tom Cruise, when he was filming Mission Impossible, in his house in Regent's Park, overlooking Marne Barracks."

Gurj has spent 14 months, working 14 to 15 hour days, seven days a week, to fit the hi-tech machines into the new site under Cheema's American Pool and Snooker in Hylton Road.

He says the Pannata equipment is not available anywhere else in the North East.

City council leader Paul Watson, who attended the opening, said: "I am really pleased to come here today, to wish the Cheema family well.

"It is all part of the approach to tackling poor health in the city and it is good to see private business investing their money in such a positive way in the community."

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