Mytime Active Stories - Linda

Linda Baldwin from Beckenham, near Bromley, began visiting Mytime Active’s Spa at Beckenham leisure centre in 2021, to take part in an ESCAPE-Pain course.

Arthritis in her knees was causing severe pain and Linda had recently experienced a fall. After a friend saw an advert for Mytime’s ESCAPE-Pain course, Linda signed up. Three years later, her mobility has been transformed.

“My ESCAPE-Pain course was 12 classes over six weeks. I found it so useful. The trainer talked us through everything from how to best take medication and when to move around or rest, to what exercises we should be doing,” says Linda. “There were 13 of us in the group and it was so reassuring to know it wasn’t just me who struggled with pain. Some of us have remained friends ever since.”

After the initial course, Linda joined a Functional Movement class and began attending the Spa at Beckenham regularly. “I was worried the ‘real’ classes in the gym would be a bit much for me, but with a little encouragement I gave it a go, and it really helped. Once you’re in there, you’re away! Three of us from that original ESCAPE-Pain course still go to Functional Movement weekly; in fact, now most of us do four classes a week! We’re all so much more mobile than when we started.

“There was a gentleman in Functional Movement who suggested I ought to try some other classes. He was nearly 90! He got us going Simply Sosa, a very simple dance exercise class, which certainly gets everything going first thing on a Monday. He also persuaded us to try Functional Stretch and Functional Circuits – hard to believe it took a 90-year-old to encourage me to do more to get me fit. Now I would be lost without my classes, I can’t express how much benefit I’m getting from them.

“It’s a gradual improvement; you suddenly realise you’ve done something that before, you had to think about. After I fell, I wasn’t confident in my movements, I was worried if I started out on a walk, I wouldn’t be able to get home. Silly things would happen like I’d sit and have lunch, then when I tried to stand up my legs wouldn’t straighten. That hasn’t happened for a very long time now.”

For Linda, as well as improvements to her mobility, she has experienced social benefits too. “The social element is a huge part for me,” she says. “I turn up as much to see people and have a cuppa together before in the café as I do the class. It’s hard to muster the confidence to go along to something like this for the first time. You feel old and doddery, and like everyone else will be an expert. But the ESCAPE-Pain course was part classroom, part exercise class and gave me the confidence to think ‘maybe I can do this’.

“Now I can do so much more without having to think about it or plan my next move. I used to have to psyche myself up to get off the sofa. Now I just stand up!”

Linda has recently completed a Walk to World Arthritis Day fundraiser for Versus Arthritis, when she walked 41 miles in 12 days.

Read more about Versus Arthritis