Fitness programme for East Durham women launched with £10k community funding
‘It has made a huge difference, allowing us to provide more support to the local community and improve both physical and mental health.’
A year-long programme of fitness and wellbeing sessions for women aged 40-60 has launched in East Durham, thanks to £10,000 funding.
East Durham Health and Fitness in Cold Hesledon Industrial Estate, will deliver the specialist sessions, with co-owner Lauren Conway saying the money has made possible a class she has wanted to run for a long time.
The classes aim to improve physical health, confidence and social connection, delivering tailor-made health and fitness sessions for women aged 40 to 60.
East Durham Fitness is a community interest company that already runs classes for pregnancy, children and gentle exercise. It now adds the women’s group to its list of specialist sessions.
Murton-born Lauren and co-owner Steven Hart draw on a decade of experience improving health within the NHS, with Lauren specialising in stroke rehabilitation, prevention and occupational health.
Their specialist sessions aim to provide “a community service that would otherwise not be available”.
Lauren said: “Getting the funding was amazing and has transformed what we’re able to do.
“It has made a huge difference, allowing us to provide more support to the local community and improve both physical and mental health.
“It has enabled us to invest in equipment to run the project and reduce the cost of sessions, making them more accessible to harder‑to‑reach families.
“I think there’s a need for this in the community, a group that tends to be overlooked, because it’s a challenging time of life and as well as the exercise sessions and the strengthening sessions, there’s also a social element to it.
“We started the pilot session with eight but have rapidly risen to 12, and we’re looking to invite more.
“We run eight-week courses and then people can decide if they want to stay on, which so far, they have.”
Funding is from the National Grid, which is investing in the region through its £1.8bn EGL1 project.
The National Grid project will deliver clean electricity from Scottish wind farms to a substation built on the site of the former Hawthorn Pit in County Durham for distribution from the North East. Part of the investment is funding local community projects.
For more information, visit www.eastdurhamfitness.com or email [email protected].