11th March 2010

CHARD: Personal trainers go all out for charity

By Marion Draper

TWO PERSONAL trainers from Chard took on a massive 24 hour fitness marathon to raise money for charity and promote their new partnership.

Simon Lunn, gym instructor from the Phoenix Fitness Centre and Joe Philip, fitness room manager at the CRESTA Leisure Centre have teamed up to form a new company, Optimal Personal Training, and decided on the overnight session to raise money for CLIC Sargent and Help for Heroes.

The pair conquered a gruelling 24 hours of fitness training starting and ending at Phoenix Fitness but with forays into the town to run and collect money.

They also played football with the Avishayes under eights on the all-weather pitch at Holyrood School to get a change of scene and involve the youngsters.

The two men started at midday on Tuesday, February 2nd, and, ran, rowed, cycled, lifted weights, boxed and played football to keep up their momentum until noon on Wednesday.

They welcomed others into the gym to join them and use the machines for a donation. The amount raised was up to £1,200 at the time of going to press and money was still coming in.

Sponsored by Lucozade, the super fit duo kept going with energy bars and small amounts of shepherd pie and lasagne brought in by their supporters, but still lost a few pounds each in the process.

Joe, a keen rugby player who trained with the Royal Marines said the toughest time for him was between 3 and 4am and they were grateful to some of their customers who came in during the night to offer their support.

He said Simon suffered when he took a high energy class at 6am for an hour but at 10am on the Wednesday, with only two hours to go they both looked remarkably fresh.

They would like to thank everyone who supported them including Lucozade and who gave so generously to the charities. It is not too late to donate by going online to www.justgiving.com/joe-simon or via Phoenix Fitness in East Street, Chard.

PICTURE: Personal trainers Joe Philip and Simon Lunn on the last two hours of a 24 hour fitness challenge