By Samuel Wightwick
A 21-year-old is helping the elderly stay fit – by giving them boxing lessons.
Bailey-Greetham Clark started his company ‘Be Great Fitness’ in 2020 when he was just 17.
It all started when he was asked to speak at ‘Flourish’, a day center for adults with educational needs.
After this experience, Bailey realised that people from vulnerable groups do not have the same access to sport and fitness as others.
So Bailey set up his own wellbeing company to make sport and fitness accessible to schools, hospitals, community centers and care homes.
Bailey, from Lincolnshire, Grimsby, said: “I realised that these groups needed the help pretty quickly.
“Coming out of the pandemic, care homes were the last to come out of full lockdown.
“We thought it was essential to bring fitness into them especially, just to spread some joy and cheer.
“Sport and exercise cheer people up, we make jokes and have a laugh with everyone, and we make their day better.”
Bailey takes his fitness classes to 20-30 different care homes, and runs one hour sessions with the residents.
These range from simple boxing drills to hand eye coordination games- everything to improve the residents fitness and mental health.
Since posting videos on social media of these sessions, the interest in the business has never been stronger.
With videos ranging from 1,000 to 700,000 views, it has lead to lots of interest, and Bailey has never been busier.
He said: “We started by putting ourselves forward to care homes, but now we get tons of enquiries, my calendar is insane at the moment!
“We’re trying to get more people added to our team and roll sessions out nationally, and we’re working with partners at the minute to build on that.
“I just want to ensure that the people have my passion and enthusiasm- that’s the next challenge, but it’s a great one to have!”
Bailey struggled with a challenging upbringing, and was taken in by his grandparents – kickstarting his passion for helping the elderly
When he was 14, he was forced to take a year out of school, which lead to him struggling with his weight.
But when he discovered boxing and running as a way to keep fit- his whole outlook changed.
He returned to s=chool, achieved his GCSE’s and started working at his local boxing club- setting him on the pathway to where he is today.
Bailey said: “Seeing first hand the genuine impact we make is insane.
“We can go into homes and show our ability to bring spirits up of not only residents, but the staff too.
“One of the care homes recorded a video saying how much they enjoyed the session, and one woman said how much she loves my legs!
“That genuine impact on people you don’t always get in other industries, and we can really see the benefit.
“It’s beautiful and it keeps me going, it sounds corny but it genuinely does!”
