John Searle

Dr John's New Lease of Life As He Qualifies As a Personal Trainer at the Age of 63

Retired doctor, John Searle from Exeter, has successfully overcome debilitating health problems to become a personal trainer at the age of 63. Having completed his Advanced Personal Trainer Award from leading health and fitness training provider, Lifetime, earlier this year, he is now enjoying the start of an unexpected and promising career.

In 1998 John found that he was no longer capable of sustaining the level of work involved in his role as Consultant Anaesthetist and Director of Intensive Care at the Royal Devon and Exeter Hospital (RD&E) due to severe rheumatoid arthritis. John said: "The arthritis affected all my joints. There were times when I would wake up at 4am, take some painkillers, then wake up at 6.30am and take some more. I would then sit in a hot bath and after 90 minutes I would feel like a human being again."

John continues: "My colleagues were able to get my rheumatoid arthritis reasonably under control and keep me pretty active, but I still had flare-ups. There were times when I would walk for 15 minutes from home into town and then have to call my wife to fetch me. Rheumatoid arthritis makes you desperately tired and I was also not sleeping well - sometimes I never had more than four hours of uninterrupted sleep."

So at the age of 56, John was forced into retirement after an esteemed career in medicine which saw him become the founder chairman of Hospicare, which he helped to open in 1992. The future looked bleak until two years ago, when John heard of some American research suggesting that demanding exercise programmes had a beneficial affect on patients with rheumatoid arthritis.

With encouragement from his family, and backing from his GP, John decided to embark on an exercise regime and he managed to find himself a great personal trainer in Colin Kirkman. Within two months his life had been transformed, John explains: "Within about eight weeks of my first session with Colin, I was completely symptom-free. I had no joint pain and stiffness and my energy levels had improved enormously. I now enjoy uninterrupted sleep and bounce out of bed in the morning."

Colin's exercise programmes for John become steadily more and more demanding, and then last year he presented John with his biggest challenge yet, suggesting that he should get some health and fitness training so that he could join him and his colleagues in working with clients. John explains: "When Colin suggested that I too become a personal trainer, my immediate response was: 'I'm in my 60s not my 30s! I'm not a hunk and I don't have blonde streaks in my hair!' "

Nevertheless, the determined, father of four seized the challenge and signed up with Lifetime on their Advanced Personal Trainer Award, which he undertook at the company's head office in Bristol. He says: "On my training course, I was the oldest by far. There was at least a 20 to 30 years age gap between us, but they were a fantastic bunch of people."

John worked hard to pass the intensive course of practical and theoretical exams, which covered a range of modules including Exercise and Fitness Knowledge, Nutrition and Weight Management, Advanced Fitness Instructor, Sports Conditioning, Gym Instructing and Client Appraisal. He enthuses: "All the staff, both administrative and teaching, were highly professional, immensely knowledgeable, always encouraging and great fun. Their jobs are particularly challenging as they work with students who have a wide range of ages, experiences and educational backgrounds. They were expert in dealing with us all, we learnt a great deal and had a lot of fun too."

Having successfully completed his course earlier this year, John is now working part-time at Colin's company, Body Active Personal Training, which has clients all over Exeter and Torquay. John also still finds time to train himself four times per week. He says: "It really has given me a whole new lease of life - it's wonderful to be so well. Everyone has been so supportive and encouraging. I'm still on medication and I still see my doctor and specialist regularly." He added: "Nobody with arthritis or other health conditions should undertake an exercise programme without discussing it first with their GP."

John's medical background and his own health experiences, mean he is particularly interested in helping clients with joint disease and he also takes GP referrals with clients. John's clients range in age from 24 years old to 75. His first client suffered from severe osteoarthritis and after three weeks was thrilled that he had got so active again. John said: "I love working with people again and it's brilliant seeing them benefit from their exercise programmes, and I get to keep fit myself too. I am so grateful to Lifetime for enabling me, and encouraging me, to go for Level 2 and beyond - I'm hoping to complete my Diploma in Personal Training (Level 3) by the end of the year."

Brimming with new found confidence, John, who was awarded the OBE in 1998, in recognition of the hospice movement and his services to medicine, is now pushing the boundaries even further. He has just returned from climbing Mount Kilimanjaro with his wife, Elizabeth, in aid of The Tigers project, a charity which helps children get off the streets of Uganda and into education and work.

Life has never been so busy for John and that's the way he likes it. He declares: "Who wants to retire for goodness sake? Life is for living."