A new fitness programme for veterans in North East Lincolnshire is to be launched next year as part of a partnership between the Fusion Centre and NEL4Heroes.
The partnership, which involves Steve Sampher and Marc Ireland from the NEL4Heroes Team, Wayne Bloy of the Fusion Centre, and also Heneage Ward Councillors Kevin Shutt, Emma Clough, and Matthew Patrick, came about through a mutual understanding of the lack of facilities in North East Lincolnshire for veterans and servicemen and servicewomen leaving the armed forces.
Wayne Bloy, Founder of the Fusion Centre, said, “Emma and Kevin both approached me around doing something for the NEL4Heroes Team, which is something I was keen to get involved with anyway, because we’re always looking for different ways to help the community around here, especially in the Heneage Ward itself. But there’s an obvious need for it.
“Emma pitched it really well to me, and I’ve known Steve anyway on a personal level, just from being neighbours at one point, so I was really keen to get on board and help and do what we can to kind of help the situation that many veterans find themselves in.”
The situation, as described by Steve, is that when military personnel leave the armed forces, they can often feel disadvantaged, lost, or even lonely. One way that veterans cope with this is by hitting the gym, with Steve saying “it forms a sort of release, because they haven’t got the pressure of them having to do it. We get a lot of servicemen and servicewomen who struggle with their mental health, and it’s a known fact that working on your physical health absolutely does wonders for your mental health as well.”
With that in mind, the duo of Marc and Steve have partnered up with Wayne at the Fusion Centre and the Heneage Ward Councillors to deliver a one-of-a-kind fitness programme within North East Lincolnshire for veterans.
Steve Sampher and Marc Ireland are both members of the NEL4Heroes team, which is an armed forces veteran support network. They are part of a team of five and share lived experience of what it’s like to be in the military and, more importantly, what it’s like to be a veteran.
The team at NEL4Heroes forms a lifeline for veterans who have come out of the service and are struggling, whether it be with health and fitness or living out in the public world again.
They offer a variety of means of support, such as ‘NAFFI-styled’ coffee mornings and chats, addiction and alcoholism support, or just an ear to listen with their growing community.
Now, the team wants to branch out and offer more external support through partnerships, such as their recent partnering with Wayne.
Steve said, “Working with Wayne, I think it’d be absolutely a no-brainer, because it’s not just veterans of our age we’d be helping, but even the older veterans too, as they’d be doing maybe less impact, sit-for-fit classes, and stuff like that. That would help their fitness, their mobility, their mental health, and their physical health.”
Marc added, “What we want to do is branch out. Going off the 2021 Census, 7,000 veterans ticked that box in this area – where are they? We get 30 that’ll maybe come a breakfast, or in different breakfasts you’ll maybe see the maximum of about 30, 35.
“We want to see where these 7,000 veterans are and see if they are in need. There’s some that will feel isolated too; that’s another reason we want to set this up because if we can get those people out of isolation with their different needs and support them, that’s where we can help them with everything, like their mental health and wellbeing, for example.”
Building a larger community is among one of the wider aims of the partnership as well.
Steve said, “Coming to a place like this and meeting other people who are not in the military, it then broadens their horizons because sometimes that military community can become very inward-looking, and then once they get out of that military community, they need to realise that they’re still part of the civilian community and interact with them more.
“So they need to get into places like gyms and community centres where they can basically interact and reach out and look at other community pathways they can go down.”
The main provision of the partnership will be a boxing programme or a general gym programme where there’ll be an instructor who will be able to deliver the sessions to those who are interested. After that, the community aspect will commence where veterans can sit down, have a chat and a coffee, and just enjoy being around other like-minded but also different individuals.
Furthermore, the project will be incentivised so that if someone attends the boxing session, they will receive a gym pass for a week in which they can use the gym for free. This provides another chance for veterans to mix with the general public in some of the other classes that the Fusion Centre provides.
Upon hearing about the idea, Heneage Ward Councillors Emma Clough, Kevin Shutt, and Matthew Patrick pledged their support.
Emma said, “These guys have had very little funding, so as ward councillors, that’s where we made the decision that we wanted to use some of our ward funding to fund the start of this.”
Matthew pledged his personal support to the project, saying, “The amount of support that some of our veterans need means that there’s a big need in this area. In my professional life, I work in health and safety, and that involves mental health, and a lot of my colleagues are actually ex-forces.
“I’ve helped some of them with the mental health issues they’re having, and it’s quite surprising and quite hidden sometimes just how you work with them for months and you wouldn’t even know, and then just one day they have a bit of a moment and you support them.
“So, I think things like this would be excellent for helping with day-to-day things, but also some more acute problems.”
The programme is expected to launch in January 2025, with more information to become available later this year.
Reporter.
Part of the Gi Grimsby News team since 2024.