Local Hero - Southampton

Audrey Fisher, born in 1927, is one of Active Nation’s oldest and most inspiring supporters. The 90year old great-grandmother has been a member at Chamberlayne since 2000. Joining the same year that our Chamberlayne Centre opened, Audrey still visits and attends classes regularly.

After one of her classes at Active Nation, we surprised her with a little 90^th birthday party! There was cake, flowers and bubbley, and we even awarded her with a free annual membership to keep her active to her 91st birthday! Watch Audrey’s lovely reaction here.

Finding your own way to keep active becomes particularly important with old age. As you get older, it can become more difficult to do everyday activities that used to be easy, but keeping your body moving regularly will help. The NHS website states that “if you want to stay pain-free, reduce your risk of mental illness, and be able to go out and stay independent well into old age, you’re advised to keep moving.”^[1]

Keeping active need not involve intense, rigorous exercise – which might become harder as you get older. Walking, cycling, swimming or playing sports such as tennis, are all a great way to keep active. But the most important thing is that you do not spend all day sat down and not moving. Even just doing regular activities like gardening will help, as it will work lots of different of muscles.

At Active Nation, we offer a huge range of classes, many of which are aimed at people who might find intense exercise intimidating. Why not try out a class like our “Nice & Easy” session, which offers a full body workout but at a gentle pace?

People like Audrey are our biggest inspiration here at Active Nation because they show us that, no matter who you are, and no matter what your capabilities, you can find ways to be active. So, what is Audrey’s secret to a healthy, independent lifestyle (as well as looking great) at her age? Keeping active!

Listen to Audrey’s wonderful BBC Radio Solent feature here: