Leeds personal trainer in fundraising push after giving lifesaving advice to client with throat cancer

Terrimarie Appleyard, 36, runs fitness classes for pre and post natal women with a passion to keep fit and active.

During lockdown her classes moved online helping women with Zoom fitness workouts, mental health workshops and body positivity talks for women post pregnancy.

One of her clients started training with a continuous sore throat, so Terrimarie recommended she go see a specialist and not put it off any longer.

This turned out to be lifesaving advice as her client was diagnosed with throat cancer and now has to speak via an automated voice box following a pharyngectomy.

"We were training together and she had been told it was asthma and acid reflux but you could tell from her breathing that it just wasn't that but something much much more," she told the YEP.

"In the group we have now had two ladies who were effected by really big life changing events. One lost their baby at 18 months old and another was diagnosed with throat cancer."

The group, called TRIBE, are now raising funds for both the Throat Cancer Foundation and Martin House Hospice.

"We're doing a calendar to raise money. During the pandemic all the work went online and we've created a really strong community of women who look out for each other," she said.

"They are such a strong tribe of women. It's all about having a shared love of something and in this case it's keeping fit. It's about keeping fit and staying strong both physically and mentally."

Terrimarie has been a fitness instructor at Fitness That Fits here in Leeds for over four years with her classes becoming a support mechanism for those struggling throughout the pandemic.

"It was difficult to take the business from face to face to online but this is an amazing group of women who have poured their heart out to each other and supported each other through everything during lockdown," she said.

"We are all mums at home and wives. Housewives basically do it all so it's been a really big support network."

Even with restrictions lifting and life returning to normal the classes have remained a support mechanism for those who attend.

"We are just busy women who work hard, play hard and want to work out." she added.