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My name is Jan Holroyd, I am a Health Trainer for the Newquay area.
I was a foster carer and my placement was ending so I was looking for something new to do and I saw the advert in the paper
and it said that you didn’t need to have any formal qualifications just life experience.
It was things like loosing weight, stopping smoking, increasing activity, things that I had done myself that I recognised that I could help others with.
I have been doing the job for nearly 7 years now and everyday is different I love coming to work,
I think if you get up in the morning and you don’t want to go to work you’re in the wrong job.
I love seeing people through and helping them reflect back on where they started to where they are now
and the satisfaction for me comes when they realise how far they have come.
Our aim with clients is to help them set SMART goals, to help them focus on something that is specific and measurable that they can achieve.
Some clients we feed into groups where we feel that being sociable would benefit them.
The issues we deal with are weight management, stopping smoking, increasing activity, self esteem and confidence, job hunting,
help with the job centre help, help with housing, anything that could be a barrier to maintaining their health.
I had a lady who was silver haired, so she was of the older generation, who was referred for help with activity and loosing weight,
and she expressed a wish to go to the gym but because she was of an older generation her idea of who would be in the gym were thin people in lycra and it terrified her.
So we made a plan to go together, I said I would go with her for several weeks, support her through that until we found her a gym buddy
for her to maintain with which then lead onto her trying other things like swimming.
She hadn’t been swimming for a very long time, didnt have a good body image and was really quite thankful when she got in the pool
and said that she never would of done that if somebody hadn’t of come with her and helped her.
So then she came along to our swimming group and has been coming for a while now so she has lost weight,
she has lost inches and is feeling quite good about herself which is great.
I think what is rewarding is if you have worked with somebody several years ago and then bumping into them in the highstreet and seeing that they have still kept weight off
or they have not started smoking again or they have maintained their behaviour change. That is incredibly rewarding.
Over the past 6 years I have seen peoples lives turned around, I have seen people change for the better,
I believe in the Health Trainer Service because I have seen it work, I have been part of it and I hope to be part of it for a long time to come.