Diane Pugh

Project Co-Ordinator at Cwmbran Centre for Young People (CCYP), Diane Pugh, completed her Gym Instructor Award with Lifetime Training. She now enjoys encouraging young people to stay fit and healthy by working out on the gym equipment which has been donated to the centre. She will shortly launch an aerobics class for young mums, having gained her Lifetime Exercise to Music.

A ballet and contemporary dancer when she was younger, Diana's first job was in a community dance role where she helped to provide creative opportunities for everyone to participate in the dance experience. After a job with Newport Council as a youth worker, she was appointed to Project Co-Ordinator at the CCYP in 2002. Discussing her role, Diane says: "At the CCYP we cater for young people between the ages of 11 and 25. My job is to develop arts based projects including dance, drama, textiles and crafts and to encourage young people to find the medium that they really enjoy and to get the most out of it that they can."

A couple of years ago, the staff at the CCYP were delighted to receive some gym equipment, including bicycles, treadmills and cross-trainers. Sir Steve Redgrave kindly donated three rowing machines and funding for the remaining equipment was accessed from 'Wanless', a funding body specialising in health and fitness, and by raising money from a series of in-house, fund-raising activities. Diane says: "It was a fantastic boost for the CCYP to receive the gym equipment, however, none of us was trained in gym instruction and we decided that we'd better rectify the situation pretty quickly so that we could allow the young people to safely and effectively use the machines."

It was then that one of Diane's colleagues, Lee Rowland, came across Lifetime Training. After an internet search he decided that they offered one of the best options for achieving the Fitness Instructor Award. He comments: "Not only was the Lifetime course good value for money, providing a nationally recognised qualification, it also offered a flexible approach to training which appealed to us. For example, I decided to do the course via distance learning, so that I could fit it around other commitments at home and work, whereas, some of my colleagues chose to do an intensive week's course, which was taught in a classroom environment."

Diane was one of the five Project Co-ordinators who decided to do the taught course at the Lifetime Training Centre in Bristol. She comments: "I was quite surprised at just how much there was to learn, and I found the week pretty intensive. I certainly needed the few weeks after the course, and before the exam, to digest all the information we were given! Having said that, I thoroughly enjoyed it and it's certainly made me appreciate the in-depth knowledge that fitness instructors have."

In December 2005, Diane put in a bid for funding from local body, the Cwmbran Community Chest, to do step aerobics at the centre. She says: "I was delighted when we heard that our bid had been successful because a lot of young mums had expressed an interest in coming to Step classes and I thought that this would be a great way of encouraging them to take a little more exercise, whilst having great fun and meeting new people." So Diane and her colleague wasted no time in signing up for the 2-day Step course at Lifetime.

However, after speaking to the Lifetime Course Advisor, Diane was alarmed to discover that in order to gain the Step qualification, she would first need to achieve her Exercise to Music certificate. She explains: "It had simply never crossed my mind that we might have to do the Exercise to Music course first, before specialising in a specific area. Of course now, in hindsight, it all makes perfect sense - we would have been completely lost and unprepared had we jumped straight in to the Step course without gaining the all-important, solid grounding in Exercise to Music!"

The problem was that after committing all their funds to paying for the Step course and 20 steps and mats for the centre, Diane and her colleague had run out of money! Diane explains: "I was really quite upset, and didn't know how we were going to solve the problem - we had all the equipment in place, a group of enthusiastic supporters waiting for the classes to start, but no means of paying for the qualification!"

So Diane was over the moon, when she found out that Lifetime had come to the rescue and offered to train her and her colleague for their Exercise to Music Instructor Award completely free of charge. Siobhan Wright, Marketing Manager at Lifetime Training, says: "Diane and her colleagues are established customers and we knew that if we didn't step in, it would mean that several young mothers would be let down - we felt that we simply couldn't let that happen! We're proud that we could help with such a worthy initiative - promoting the benefits of a healthy lifestyle to young people is of paramount importance."