A GYM in York is running a competition to win six months of free personal training sessions and is open to people of all fitness levels.

Podfit, in Market Street, York, which enables people to transform their fitness levels, is offering the prize.

Owner Neil Owens, 42, said anyone could win and urges people to nominate “someone whose life it could change.”

He said: “If they have a good reason to become fit we want to hear from them. This could be anything, an injury, weight loss, or they may have recently been made redundant.”

Mr Owens was made redundant fifteen years ago when working as a PE teacher in Beverley. Although he had already been doing some personal training on the side, this gave him the opportunity to pursue his new career full-time.

Podfit, which has been running since Christmas, after rebranding, hopes to “change lives” and also offers a 12-week diet programme which Neil and his colleague John have started themselves this month.

After 12 weeks their body fat will be down to between four and seven per cent, making them exceptionally fit, Neil said.

Many clients have taken similar steps. Daphne, one of Neil’s clients, has lost three and a half stone in three months after turning to personal training when she suffered a bad fall resulting in a broken back and compacted disks.

Neil has also suffered from injury, but his most serious setback was a compressed spinal cord which left him close to paralysis. From diagnosis to fully fit it took him nine months, and an operation, to recover.

He is now encouraging those with injuries to come forward and enter for the free personal training to aid their recovery.

The competition can be found at podfit.co.uk/new_site/