Fitness For Life on Manchester Road in Bury says it will be staying open during the second national lockdown, despite the new restrictions.
Jayne Deakin, 51, who has worked in the fitness industry for more than two decades believes her business should be classed as essential and therefore able to remain open.
Speaking to the Bury Times, she said: “The only reason I’m doing this is for my members.
“I’m frightened to death, I’m not daft and I know there’s a virus so I’m really worried, but these are the people I get out of bed every day for.
GYMS ARE ESSENTIAL. GYMS ARE SAFE. KEEP GYMS OPEN.
10m people rely on gyms for their physical and mental wellbeing. Gyms are proven to have very low rates of Covid transmission and help our nation fight the virus. This is why we urge the government to #KeepGymsOpenpic.twitter.com/cOjjCJDSnl
“There’s no logic in shutting a gym – not when I’ve spent thousands of pounds making it covid safe.
“They’re not giving a valid enough reason – how can garden centres, and click and collect alcohol from pubs be essential, but gyms that keep people physically and mentally fit and healthy, and able to fight the virus aren’t?”
Fitness For Life has now been reopen for 110 days and has had no cases linked to the site.
From this, the data has calculated 10,036 common locations or settings including restaurants, schools, supermarkets and gyms that were reported.
Public Health England
This data shows that gyms accounted for 2.8% of all common locations reported (based on shared postcode).
This puts gyms behind secondary schools, which takes up 6.8% of all the common locations and supermarkets (11.2%).
The data explains that locations with more visitors are more likely to be identified as common exposures and that no adjustments have been made for how often a common location is visited.
This means that while the data shows that 930 people (2.8%) had visited the gym it doesn’t explain that they caught coronavirus at the gym.
i’ll stop going on about it soon but i’ve just read that garden centres are staying open ???? RIGHT so garden centres are essential but gyms are not ???? i cba
Mrs Deakin added: “These people need that reason to get out of bed in the morning – I’ve got full classes booked all day tomorrow.
“The only people who aren’t coming are people either in the police or married to police officers, or those in the NHS who can’t come because of their jobs.
“For everyone else it’s a lifeline – I don’t know if I’m doing the right thing, if I’ve made the right decision, but I know in my heart I’ve got to do what I believe in.
“It’s not about money, I could shut that door, put my computer on, and teach through Zoom, but it’s not about that.
“It’s been a difficult eight months and now it’s dark, it’s wet, it’s that time of year when depression and anxiety is harder, my members need me.
“It feels so empty, you’ve not got that interaction you just do the class and then you go, there’s just a feeling of loneliness.
“For some of my members I’m the only thing they see in a day, I can’t take that away from them. As long as my members want to come I will try and be there.”
Danielle Cerullo/Unsplash
She added that she’s worried about being fined for staying open. Currently, the fines begin at £1,000 for businesses found to be breaking the coronavirus restrictions and double until the fourth offence, when it reaches £10,000.
She added: “I’m 51 years old and I’ve never been in trouble with the police so I’m absolutely terrified.
“I’m scared I’m going to get fined, I can’t pay fines but I’ll find a way to make it work – what else am I going to do, shut my doors?
“I’m not blindly following the rules without reason.
“There’s been a lot of backlash, people telling me I deserve to be fined because I’m breaking the rules but I’m not – I’m making a stand for what I believe in.”