2020 - COVID

During October 2020, it was announced that Liverpool would be the first city in the country to be forced into the new ‘Tier 3’ lockdown, the finer details were released later that day online. I reviewed the published legislation and seen no reference to our sector being amongst those forced to close.

The following day the PM gave a press conference to state which industries would close, the health and fitness industry being amongst the those mentioned. I believed the announcement to close our industry had been an oversight and was not supported by the new legislation; I brought this to the attention of local leaders. I lobbied and won support of various MP’s from all 3 primary political parties, as well as Liverpool City Mayors Steve Rotherham & Joe Anderson, Wirral Council Leader Janette Williamson, Speaker of The House of Commons Sir Lindsay Hoyle and ultimately Prime Minister Boris Johnson.

My campaign was recognized globally, making front page of the New York Times amongst over 100 other publications that featured my interviews and story. During the campaigned I promoted a government petition to re-open health, fitness and mental wellbeing facilities in Tier 3 regional restrictions with a matter of urgency, a request supported by extensive medical and scientific literature.

We amassed a total of 630,000 signatures on the official government petition, a feat only matched in recent years by England FC’S Marcus Rashford’s petition for School Dinners for Underprivileged Children. I helped achieve this figure by bringing exposure to the petition through continuous appearances in local, national and global press, including, but not limited to, Sky TV, ITV News, ITV This Morning, BBC Panorama, BBC News, CNN, Russia Today and a relentless push on my social media platform. These efforts took a serious toll on my mental health but I continued to commit my every waking moment until we achieved success and had the legislation reversed.

Upon a government petition receiving over 100,000 votes a parliamentary debate should, in any normal circumstance, take place. However due to COVID the petitions committee had been suspended. To ensure the debate took place and was not delayed until the damage had been done, I travelled to Chorley to meet personally with Sir Lindsay Hoyle, Speaker of the House of Commons. After reviewing the literature I presented, Sir Lindsay agreed this was a matter of urgency and vowed to speak with the Prime Minister immediately after our meeting and that he would personally ensure the debate took place. The very next morning he informed us the debate would take place the following Monday.

At this stage I had gained public support of industry giants such as sports nutrition giant and industry leader GRENADE, GymShark, PureGym CMO Stephen Row (270 facilities nationwide), David Lloyd director (150 gyms nationwide), including extensive support from national and international celebrities, we had combined our efforts to reach all cross-party MP’s that may potentially attend and equip them with the data necessary to attend the debate.

16 MPs were selected at random to attend the debate and all 16 voted in favour of our request to reverse national legislation. Angela Eagle MP put forward my request to the house during the live debate and on the day of my 30th birthday October 23rd 2020, national legislation was changed and access was returned to the 4.5 MILLION registered service users who had at this point had their access revoked by revised Tier 3 legislation.

Shortly after, the British Medical Journal, World Health Organisation and renowned medical outlet The Lancet published studies demonstrating the clear link between physical inactivity and severity of COVID-19 symptoms. In their own words ‘Physical inactivity DOUBLES the risk of critical illness and/or death from COVID-19 due to resulting decline in immune system effectiveness’. With this data, it is clear that we not only saved thousands of businesses and jobs but also halved the risk of potential critical illness and/or death from COVID-19 for 4.5 million people.

As a result of this, I received a nomination for BBCs Sports Personality Unsung Hero Award, I won NFM UK's Community Hero Award, a nomination for M.B.E, and a nomination for UK Active's Physical Activity Hero Award, the UK's governing trade body for physical activity, fitness facilities and leisure industries.