I couldn’t be happier to have made it as a finalist in not one, but two categories at this year’s Irish Fitness Industry Awards. This award holds a very special place in my heart, it has given me the confidence over the last two and a half years to truly excel more than I ever thought possible in my business by allowing me to believe in myself! Believe that I am doing something right in an industry that is so saturated, competitive and sometimes can be genuinely cut throat, but that little me and my community have a right to be there and to be recognised as a leader in this industry is just something that will never cease to amaze me!

Being nominated once again for ‘Best Class Based Gym’ makes me feel ecstatic but also extremely grateful to the people that voted and then voted some more. This nomination makes me want to keep working harder and keep building my business and serving the people of SDF who I would not be here without.

As most of you know, the whole space got a massive make over recently and SDF has grown, upward, literally. We added the second floor to the gym space and it’s now kitted out with a monitored heated cardio room or as you affectionately (I hope) know it as, The SDF Heated Chamber. I also added a coffee dock space for my members to gather, chill, have a catch up and just speak to each other. Downstairs there’s a wider range of classes than ever before, introducing vinyasa-flow yoga to the options has really given people that perfect ‘end to one week start of another’ feeling which I hope to grow on into the future.

The range of classes and options available to my members is wider and better than I had ever imagined and for me to do this all solo with some amazing people that gave me a helping hand this is something that I am truly proud of. I can now stand and look at what I have built and to stand proud of what one person can do I’m certainly not finished it’s only the start of a new journey for me.

As if this nomination wasn’t enough, to find out I have been nominated for ‘Outstanding Contribution to Fitness’, well I’ll be honest, I nearly fell off my chair!

When I think back over my achievements in last year, public speaking on mental health during a mental health crisis, going on the radio to share my journey, showing the nation the version of me before I found the real me in a national newspaper, each of those nerve wrecking moments when I’d think ‘but sure who wants to hear my journey, my struggles, my triumphs’, and that gut wrenching feeling of ‘have I made a mistake?’… There’s nothing like that fear, but I honestly feel it was all worth it. Every single bit of it.

Sometimes it can be thought that when someone shares their story, they do it for recognition, fame or even to boast. But this was not my case,

I share my past because it’s what grounds me, it’s what re ignites that fire deep down in my belly any time I feel like it’s all getting too much, it’s what opens a safe pathway of communication between me and that person who needs my help. They can relate to me, they feel how I’ve felt, and I the same for them.

Starting out my number one goal was always to help people to be the best version of themselves (cliché as it sounds, it’s true) the way I needed this help. And I am one damn proud woman to say I achieved this goal I do so on a weekly basis, and it is the best feeling and attribute to me and my business.

So win or lose, I am and continue to be extremely grateful for every day, every single person who follows my journey, who listens to me, follows me on social media, reads my blog posts, who chooses SDF as their gym and their community and of course who VOTES for me!

If you’ve taken the time to read this far, please, please, please take an extra minute to vote for me in the 2 categories I’m nominated in… ‘Best Class Based Gym’ and ‘Outstanding Contribution to Fitness’… There’s no typing, it’s just a few clicks, it really would mean the world to me and everyone involved in SDF.

Thank You 💚💚💚