WALK into Fit Moms & Kids in Glengormley, County Antrim, and Zara Doherty will be the first person to offer you a cuppa. Zara loves to natter – but if you’re seeking a safe, quiet space, she’ll respect that too.
After all, that’s the kind of place she needed when she arrived four years ago, fighting heroin addiction.
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“I was very skinny – a size four – and thought everyone would guess my story and judge me,” Zara, 29, says. “But there was no quizzing me about who I was and where I’d come from. Someone made me a coffee and I sat quietly, taking it all in. Now, as a volunteer, I see it from the other side. When women come in with depression or anxiety, we don’t think, in a patronising way, ‘Here’s someone to look after’. We see them as new friends.”
Fit Moms & Kids was launched seven years ago by personal trainer and mum of three Leanne Evans to support local women trying to cope with loneliness, stress and anxiety. The charity received funding from the National Lottery. It has evolved into a valuable refuge where mothers can relax and get a workout, while their children are entertained free of cost by childminders.
Zara’s life was chaotic until the day she stepped through the door of Fit Moms. She was a teenager who lived in care and ended up living in hostels. She longed for stability. When she was 21 she had a baby with a boyfriend, “but we were still kids ourselves”. Zara was born in West Belfast, Northern Ireland’s most deprived area. The couple divorced when Zara was one year old. She had used heroin before her son was three.
“I can’t remember the first time I did it because it was so common where I lived,” Zara says. “There was a strong sense of community but it was based around heroin. It’s just assumed you use it.”
Zara knew she had to leave Belfast – for her child’s sake. She returned to Glengormley four years ago and moved in with her mother, while her son stayed with his father.
“It was hard – I relapsed once in the first few weeks,” Zara says. “I was lonely, missing my boy. Then I heard about Fit Moms. I wanted to use the gym but was self-conscious about how weak and skinny I was. I didn’t have the strength to lift even the smallest dumbbell. So the girls kept the gym open for me to work out when everybody had gone home.”
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A few months later, Zara was completing hour-long boxercise classes and volunteering as a childminder with Fit Moms. After that, she was able to find a 2-bedroom apartment where she could once again care for her child.
“My son is on the autism spectrum and at his first nursery he had problems sharing toys,” Zara says. “At Fit Moms he relaxed because I was close by. There’s also a sensory room, which Leanne encourages parents of kids with ASD [Autism Spectrum Disorder] to try. Learning to play well at Fit Moms set my son up for school. Now he’s eight and an A-grade student in his class and helps with the little ones at Fit Moms. ‘Get the colouring books and I’ll sit with them,’ he says – so sweet.”
It’s fair to say Zara has turned her life around. She is now a childminder and has a relationship with Thomas. Thomas is an old school friend. She models for magazines and local shops. She still volunteers two mornings per week.
“Fit Moms is the foundation of my new life – anything I achieve is thanks to the confidence it gave me,” She says. “When life gets hard, I don’t think of heroin – I pop in for a chat. I always wanted stability – at Fit Moms I’ve found my family.”
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The National Lottery is proud to sponsor The Sun’s Who Cares Wins Awards 2021, which shine a spotlight on amazing people and projects working in health and wellbeing. By playing The National Lottery, you’re helping to raise £30million a week to support good causes like Fit Moms & Kids, which was just one of more than 6,000 health and wellbeing projects that received funding last year.
Fit Moms is now able to expand its facilities, adding two additional playrooms, thanks in part to National Lottery funding.
“That allowed us to welcome and help 40 new families,” Leanne says. “National Lottery funding also paid for a counsellor, so we can offer six-week courses of therapy to our mums. Zara’s brilliant with everyone and so important here – she’s the perfect example of what we’re achieving.”
The National Lottery is the proud sponsor of Central Recorder’s Who Cares Wins Awards 2021
To find out how your numbers are making amazing happen, visit: national-lottery.co.uk/news
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