A health and wellbeing local charity in London Bridge is urging women to get into fitness to improve their mental and physical wellbeing.

The Bridge charity hosts a women’s only gym on Southwark Bridge Road, open 7am to 8pm throughout the week and 09:30 am to 6pm on weekends.

Operations manager Sarah Hickes said, “We keep the membership prices really low to get people into fitness.”

Alongside the facilities, the charity also runs many outreach projects such as ‘Rise’ and ‘Swap’.

Each focus on a blend of physical and mental health to improve overall wellbeing for women.

Hickes said, “The SWAP project is for those at risk of type 2 diabetes, so we look at behavioral change, nutrition and making small changes that can improve their health. The RISE project focuses more on the mental health side, so we look at things like art therapy, physical activity, creative writing to improve wellbeing.”

The charity works closely with the community of London Bridge. They host regular events like teas for the elderly and runs for those struggling with mental health.

Hickes said, “At The Bridge, we mainly help people who live nearby, they’re very local but some come from quite far across London to access the gym because its women only.”

Sofya Bourne talked about her personal experience at The Bridge.

She said, “I used to be really insecure about my fitness and struggled to find classes or programmes I felt comfortable with.  The support and encouragement from the female trainers here was really helpful. I recently started with the free yoga project, I feel great and have met a lot of people through it.”

They also encourage locals to get involved with a project that provides free access to sanitary and menstrual products which are distributed to local schools for girls in need.

 Locals can use the Red Box at the Bridge as a collection and donation point.

Research carried out by City Hall just last year revealed that 17 per cent of women aged 16 to 24 in the capital say they have not been able to afford menstrual products every month.

London Mayor, Sadiq Khan said, “It is hard to believe that young women in the capital are experiencing this type of poverty. Not being able to afford products they need is putting their health at risk and preventing them from fully engaging in their education. I am calling on the government to take urgent action to end period poverty.”  

The Bridge is in Southwark council which has one of the highest rates of obesity in London.

According to 2019 report released by the council, 4 in 10 year six children are obese or overweight along with over half of adults.

The charity say they help tackle this by making healthy lifestyle choices more accessible.

Hickes said, “In terms of gym users, we are getting a lot of young people coming to sign up. I don’t know if that’s a recent trend, we’ve always had students but a lot more are coming looking for answers to different nutrition questions such as clean eating, how to get certain body shapes.”

The charity self-fund through their café, gym and room hire.

“Any money we get from that we put back into our charitable programmes, so we don’t get external funding at this point”, Hickes said. 

Following recent success, four graduates of the ‘Rise’ project have gone to be employed by the organisation.

They are also looking to begin a volunteer programme outside of level two and three trainers who give their time.