02/11/2026
It’s Women and Children in sport week this week, and we want to celebrate some of the incredible local women who use our facilities 💪🏻
“Hi, I’m Laura and I’m 36 👋.
I was always the kid at school who was rubbish at P.E. I couldn’t kick, hit, or throw a ball with any level of success. But once I left university and transitioned into a sedentary desk job, I realised I’d better start doing some exercise!
I loved going to Annan Pool; the people were so friendly, and the lunchtime slots fit perfectly into my lunch break. I plucked up the courage to try the fitness classes and can still remember vividly Colette and Mike making me feel so incredibly welcome. They took a genuine interest in how I was doing and knew exactly how to push me to work to my absolute best. Despite the awful Scooter tunes Mike used to play 😂, I soon became a Spin class regular, and he introduced me to the gym equipment.
For the first time in my life, I realized that exercise wasn’t about being "good" at it. It was about it being good for me - both mentally and physically. It wasn’t about winning or losing a game like traditional sports; it was about winning for yourself. And I won for myself every single time I turned up.
When I moved away from Annan and closer to Glasgow, I had the confidence to join a gym try Pilates. Then Covid hit. While everyone else was making banana bread and hoarding toilet rolls, I trained as a Level 3 Pilates instructor, soon followed by qualifications in Aqua, Spin, and Exercise to Music. I was and am still by no means the best cyclist, dancer or at Pilates, but I wanted to show that real people do real exercise.
Recently, I was diagnosed with hypermobile Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome (hEDS). Understanding my body better and recognizing the benefits of strength training - foundations that were built 15 years ago at Annan Gym -have been key to managing my condition.
Without those staff members taking the time to get to know me and translating everything into "beginners'" language, I would never have learned to use exercise as a physical and mental lifeline, let alone become an instructor myself.
My 3 top tips to anyone wanting to start out but are feeling apprehensive are: 1. a matching gym set and a Stanley Cup are not mandatory - whatever you wear gets sweaty anyway 2. Don't start out with targets or going by what your watch tells you, just turn up and do something. 3. Go now and beat the January rush! If you aren’t keen on the gym, why not find a class you enjoy and tag two gym exercises onto the end of it? You can easily build up from there.
I’m hoping that one day my journey will come full circle, and I can come back to teach Spin, Aqua, or Pilates classes at Annan Pool or in Newington when I come to visit. I may shock an previous P.E teacher, or an old classmate or 2! But I promise - no Scooter songs! 😂”
