At the core of every person that endeavors to become a personal trainer is the desire to live a healthier life and to help others do the same. The average desire to lose weight and avoid chronic health conditions that can make life potentially shorter as well as unfulfilling can pale in comparison to the motivation of some. One such person is UK citizen Sophie Holmes, who defied her cystic fibrosis condition to become a personal trainer.
As a genetic condition, cystic fibrosis causes the lungs and the digestive system to become clogged with mucus resulting in major lung damage and digestive problems that can shorten lifespan to an average of 40 years. With the condition manifesting itself at a very young age as in the case of Sophie Holmes, no cure meant a lifetime of treatment to merely relieve symptoms and reduce long-term damage induced by infections.
Sophie Holmes (photo via the Daily Mail)
Having been active in sports growing up despite her condition, Holmes had worked hard to manage her illness with daily physiotherapy and medication. But in 2011, when she was just 19, she became critically ill after her lungs filled with mucus.
Although she had been able to control her condition up to then, the severe episode of breathing difficulty resulted in her being rushed to the hospital. After three weeks of being hooked to a heart monitor and drip fed antibiotics, she was able to pull through. The near-death experience led her to pledge to prioritize her health even more going forward.
It wasn’t long before the concept of becoming a personal trainer proved to be the ideal way to combine her health goals with a job that would help her keep it a priority on a daily basis. According to Holmes, the idea of a career that made it a job to look after her health was the ideal choice.
Working with support from her older sister who quit her job at a children’s nursery to help her realize the dream, the two embarked on their training and education regimen to become personal trainers. Today, the two are certified personal trainers that run their own successful business called Holmes Sisters Personal Training in the UK’s Southend-On-Sea area.
There are countless stories of people taking their health and careers into their own hands by becoming a personal trainer with each story having its own uniqueness. Like Sophie Holmes and her sister Anna, they realized that the stakes for their lives were high, and this path would allow them to live life to the fullest while helping others do the same.
