Fitness Australia announce National #ActiveAchievers Award winner.

Belinda Nelson has achieved the fitness industry’s highest personal trainers’ honour, Fitness Australia’s National #ActiveAchievers Award, for her work with client Donna Egglestone who lives with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and Arthritis.

Bill Moore, CEO of Fitness Australia, the peak industry association says “A Trainer and client relationship like this one between Belinda and Donna demonstrates the life-changing work that AusREPs are capable of.”

Donna Egglestone, who nominated Belinda for this Award, lives with PTSD says she’d like to see a shift in the way society views mental health.

“I want exercise to be one of the first steps in supporting people with mental health issues just like rehabilitation for those with injuries. We [people with chronic long term mental health issues] need somewhere to go where we feel nurtured and cared for, safe and supported.”

Belinda explains that in the last 12 months she’s supported Donna in achieving not only her health goals but also her personal exercise goals.

Donna ran her first full marathon, returned her weight to a normal healthy range and significantly increased her muscle and strength, something that is important with her forms of arthritis. She also competed for Australia at the World Masters where she finished with a Bronze medal and shortly after won the Victorian title for W40+ 400m hurdles. These are things that Donna wouldn’t have considered before she started training with Belinda.

#ActiveAchievers recognises the outstanding work that fitness trainers and instructors do to help their communities live a more active, healthy lifestyle.

“As the peak industry association we exist to empower our AusREPs to engage more people in exercise for better quality of life – this is a perfect example of that – which makes us extremely proud of the life-changing work being done all over the country each day,” says Moore.

Thank you to Nationwide Super for their continued support of the Fitness Australia #ActiveAchievers Awards.