RESIDENTS of retirement apartments in a Woking development are regularly put through their paces by an 84-year-old fitness instructor from West Byfleet.
Shelagh Allen, who will soon celebrate her 85th birthday, takes a weekly course of chair-based exercises designed for those living at Homebeech House on Mount Hermon Road.
“I was on the point of stopping last December but when my insurance came through again I decided to give it one more year,” Shelagh said.
“The company sent it before I had the chance to tell them I was giving up, so I’m going to carry on bit longer.
“We have to have insurance, although I haven’t had an accident in my classes.
“I’ve had quite a bit of back trouble, I’m being put on blood-thinning drugs and being investigated for osteoporosis, although I’m sure I don’t have it.
“Still, the class were so disappointed when I talked about finishing that I decided to go on until this December.
“It’s good for me and good for the class, and I only take the one class.
“I can’t remember exactly when I started at Homebeech but it’s a good while now, I’ve worked under at least five managers.”
Shelagh, who trained as a nurse at the Middlesex hospital from 1957-1960, is well known as an indoor rower, a sport she took up when she was 60.
“I won the British over-60s championship for two years running, then a 60-year-old beat me to it,” she added.
“My last World Championships was in Paris three years ago, just before the pandemic, and my last British Championships in November 2019, when I was the only 80-year-old.
“There were too few of us that applied for the British Indoor Rowing Championships in London in December, and now they are not going to have anyone over 79 for the World Championships because there are too few of us well enough or with enough motivation.”
For Shelagh, though, married for 60 years, mother of two and grandmother to a teenager, age has never been a barrier to keeping fit.