A SOCIAL enterprise which delivers health and rehabilitation exercises for people aged over 50 or with chronic health conditions has taken over a community gym thanks to a £10,000 cash boost.

The Coalfields Community Investment Fund, delivered by the Coalfields Regeneration Trust, has granted Fit 4 Life the money to keep developing their services, which started in Maryport in 2004 and have since been rolled out to Whitehaven and Workington.

The money has allowed Fit 4 Life to take on the gym in The Oval Centre at Salterbeck full time, with previous sessions held two mornings per week becoming oversubscribed.

The organisation can now provide specialist classes and sessions every day, using the funding to cover the cost of additional staff hours.

The gym is open every weekday exclusively for over-50s and those referred from third-party health services and the NHS until 12.30pm.

From this time, the general public will be given access and it will be used as an inclusive community facility.

Managing director Dougie Pomfret said: “Since launching we have continued to extend the services we offer and have now taken over the running of the gym at the Oval Centre. It was a bold step to make but one that we feel will work.”