The charity getting mums back to fighting fitness

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.

“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. With the backing of National Lottery funding, the charity has become a much-needed haven where mums can recharge with a workout while their kids are entertained by childminders for free.

Zara’s life was chaotic until the day she stepped through the door of Fit Moms. In care as a teenager and then shuttling around hostels, she yearned for stability. When she was 21 she had a baby with a boyfriend, “but we were still kids ourselves”. The couple split when their son was a year old and Zara ended up living in West Belfast, one of the most deprived areas of Northern Ireland. She was using heroin before her son turned 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.”