Sue was born into a dairy farming family in the Bay of Plenty, New Zealand in the 1950s. She is the eldest of 4 and even now manages to visit New Zealand for 3 months every year. During her primary and secondary school days, Sue loved sports especially athletics, rugby and cricket. Benefiting from the social and travel opportunities that sport brought to her life.

After working in Auckland and Sydney for a few years, Sue was ready for a change. She arrived in London in 1972, at the age of 22, which is when she began the groundwork to shape her future. She met her life partner and now husband in Waterloo in the early 1980s and they moved to Peckham in 1986. Through studying and working as a work process engineer she gained invaluable skills in business management, leadership and accounting and went on to run her own successful forward thinking business in London.

During her early days in London she took up running and loved it but stopped due to a very busy work schedule. In her 40’s a friend ‘dragged’ her along to Soho Gym where she learned to love training with the bodybuilders and other flamboyant gym goers!

When not travelling around the world Sue loves to sew, write, master her French, do Pilates, and volunteer. She now also loves lifting weights while training! Sue loves training in the mornings and always schedules her sessions early to set her up for the day.

In 2010 Sue discovered that she had cancer and was quickly set on a path of operations and chemotherapy and then a course of recovery. After getting through this difficult time, Sue then had a nasty fall in her bathroom and broke her back. In the moments following Sue was sure she would never walk again.

She married her long term partner Bob in 2012. Sold her business in 2013 and retired fully in 2014, aged 64. Sue toyed with the idea of consultancy and had made giant leaps to starting this new flexible career path but decided that she had too many other fun things she wanted to do!

Sue decided to take some time to focus on herself and was on a mission to have a great time. I was lucky enough to bump into Sue in a coffee shop while she was studying French in Brockley in 2016, she began her training at Fitology Hub and the rest is history!!

When starting her personal training journey in 2016, Sue was still recovering from her abdominal and spinal trauma. She suffered with painful shin splints, inactive muscles and stiffness which were causing everyday activities to be overly difficult and sometimes impossible. Sue is an incredibly determined woman and her positivity in starting strength training kept her focused on moving forward with her life.

Sue describes starting with Fitology Hub as the beginning of the end of her chronic back pain and her suffering. After starting Sue’s sleep increased, her mental health improved and her pain was reducing. She describes it as a long process but a life changing one. Even now Sue takes each session as an opportunity to learn new things about her body. She is fascinated about what her body can achieve and continues to explore new ranges of movement, new found strength and an ability to thrive on fast-paced, more challenging movement patterns and workouts.

Sue describes her body as being ‘dramatically different’. Most recently in 2020, just before lock down, Sue was out for 3 hours on a paddleboard in New Zealand with friends and family! She woke up the next morning with not an ache or pain in sight!

After working for years to rebuild her foundations, Sue now has the confidence to take part in any class from Pilates, Strength Training, Powerlifting to Boxing and feels safe and strong enough to move between different trainers, reaping the benefits that each one has to offer. Sue’s physical shape has completely changed. She has toned up and lost about 20 kgs, stands an inch taller with clearly noticeable postural changes and most importantly, no pain!

Sue is able to perform everyday tasks without having to think about it. During the Covid-19 Lock Down, her strength and stamina has come in handy as she has been able to hop over walls, run down Telegraph Hill to her home in Peckham and stop to chat to friends while socially distancing through windows… yes she was one of those runners!!

Sue now talks about having a ‘controlled’ appetite and while friends report they have found it challenging to control what they are eating during lock down, Sue has maintained a steady weight and a positive mind set!

The photos emphasise Sue’s charismatic nature. She is a confident, strong and resilient woman. Having the tools and stamina to deal with life's challenges. Exercise and particularly strength training has been a vital part of her journey that has helped in every way possible, so that now at 70, she feels fitter, younger and more agile than when she was 50. She is willing to take on challenges like walking 130 kms in 3 weeks and going skiing for the first time in years - inspirational!