Some information about me: I (30f) have some physical disabilities as well as Autism & ADHD and found my mobility and general physical health were getting really bad last year. I can't work and money is always really tight however I knew I needed the advice of a physical therapist or trainer to help me with the very basics of getting my body moving safely again. Each time I have attempted to exercise by myself in the past, I have (without fail) injured something.
I made the decision to quit using medical marijuana (which really helped me btw) and instead put that money towards finding someone local who could get me back on my feet. I took to my local "Spotted" Facebook group and asked for recommendations of anyone with a fitness background who could advise and help me to exercise for £50 a month.
Having received a couple of recommendations for a particular small gym, I dropped the owner a message on WhatsApp and was asked to come in for a chat. That day I felt my entire world view shift and I was hopeful for the first time in a very long time.
The owner of the gym (54f) offered to give me half an hour of personal training every Tuesday for £50 a month. She was very kind and insisted she didn't do this work for the money. She spoke about her faith as a Christian and told me she believed she was meant to help others. I was so incredibly grateful to her.
For 6 months, I saw her each Tuesday and we worked on strength and functional training. These sessions were often also deeply personal, and I'd share things with her that I'd otherwise share with a therapist. She encouraged this, and often shared things about her own life too.
I began taking the classes the gym offered and it was apparent that I was needing the one on one sessions less and less. Mary (name changed for obvious reasons) had been trying to get my Mum (62f) to join for a while and I put forward the suggestion that maybe Mum could take over my PT appointments while I attend classes only. I made sure Mary was happy to accept a further £50 per month for this arrangement and she assured me she was. My Mum is in the same financial position as me and had recently given up smoking so she had a little extra money per month to put towards improving her health.
Fast forward to last Thursday and after about a month of conversation with my Mum, we unfortunately realised we could no longer afford to pay £100 every month for this gym membership. Despite how gracious Mary had been in offering us such a discount, we were having to decide between cancelling the gym or our pet insurance. Having had a pretty traumatic month of vet visits for a very poorly cat, we were already dealing with hundreds of pounds in vets bills and honestly, we were no longer getting that much out of the gym. (Mary had told my Mum there was little she could do until Mum was on a GLP1 for her inflammation) This along with Mary's pretty extreme views that she'd peddle out on her personal Facebook page, and I felt quietly comfortable about our decision.
We WhatsApp'd Mary to give her our one month's notice and despite appearing initially a little hurt and confused, she told us we wouldn't need to pay for next month. I was grateful, though pushed her to take the payment after everything she'd done for us. She declined and assured us it was "the right thing to do."
And then things got a little weird.
She exited the group with me and my Mum and kicked us out of any and all other WhatsApp groups. I understood this of course, but thought it was a little odd because we had paid up until the 30th July and it was only the 17th. I didn't think too much into it.
The next day, Mum realised she'd been unfriended and blocked by Mary on Facebook. In some disbelief, I searched her name to find out I had also been unfriended and blocked. This hurt, but I just thought "well maybe she took our leaving as some sort of personal rejection and acted irrationally."
Things only got stranger as I soon realised we'd been blocked from accessing the gym's official Facebook page and she'd blocked me on tiktok too! Her husband, who she runs the gym with, had never been a Facebook friend of mine. However, when I looked up his name, he no longer came up. Another blocking.
While all of that really sucked, I still didn't think to leave a negative review on Google. People do strange things sometimes, especially when they take stuff personally. I thought she was being extremely unprofessional but I'm not a confrontational person.
The straw that broke the camels back was this. I noticed that the two friends I had made at the gym both unfriended me shortly after we left. These are women in their 40s and 60s by the way, and the elder one had added me, not the other way around.
I was absolutely astounded. This felt like way too much of a coincidence not to have been some kind of request by Mary. I wasn't even that close to these people, but it still hurt a LOT. That gym was the only community my Mum and I had and we were already aware that losing this little group of people was going to affect us, but to be outright ostracized and shunned from a GYM??? For being too poor to attend??? What???
This "kind, Christian" woman has given us both a severe case of emotional whiplash. It's all I've been able to think about since it happened. And because I've been blocked everywhere, I can't get any answers. I've emailed and received nothing back. I'm tempted to hand deliver a letter to the gym but I don't even know what it is I'd want to write.
I want her to know that what she did was shitty. You shouldn't be able to build someone up to feel like they are capable and strong and then pull the rug out from under them. My mental health has taken 10 steps back because all I can focus on is "What did I do to deserve whatever the fuck this it?" And "Is this something she does to anyone who dares leave her gym?"
I hope my review can warn others and I have no regrets about leaving it.