'Fitness is the best medicine': Hilsea gym owner has launched a fitness group which is changing lives

On January 1, co-owner of Hilsea-gym 1Basecamp, Lea Jackson, helped at least 19 people get 2023 off on the right foot.

It started on December 26, when 54-year-old Lea put out a post on Facebook looking for one individual who was hoping to better themselves, physically and mentally, by improving their fitness in the new year.

This person would need to be willing to commit fully, including going alcohol-free, to the free six week programme which Lea was offering, including membership to his gym and one-on-one training.

Lea, from Horndean, says: ‘I went to have dinner and came back and I had around 40 messages, I thought blimey I’ve started something here!

‘I thought I can’t say no to anyone, so I said yes to everyone. I drove down early in the morning and opened the gym on New Year’s Day when it was meant to be closed and invited them all down,’ says Lea.

In the weeks that have followed, Lea has created a community of fresh fitness fanatics, dedicated to the programme which he is providing to help people break bad habits, as well as improving their mental health.

‘Basecamp has so many stories from so many different people, some people don’t like going to meetings, some people are scared to go and see a therapist, so we always say you can come here and it’s a bit of therapy,’ says Lea.

‘It’s not just a gym, it’s somewhere you can come and talk. If you’ve got a drink or drugs problem, if you’ve got anxiety issues – as coming out of Covid a lot of people just never got over it, but they can come here.

‘They love it, they feel alive for a couple of hours,’ adds Lea.

Lea meets the group four or five times a week for fitness sessions at 1Basecamp, which he opened with his business partner Dan Till in 2021.

‘Some were too embarrassed to say they had problems, some I didn’t know – but when I go to the gym tonight I’m going to see a group of people who only two weeks ago, were scared to death to come in and now they’re a team.

‘I want to show them it’s not all doom and gloom and when you’re feeling down the worst thing you can do is go and pour a depressant down your throat, I know that because I’ve done it.’

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Lea himself didn’t start training until he was 50 after struggling with addiction, he went into rehab on January 31, 2019.

‘I massively hit rock bottom, I was in a bad state of depression, everything had got on top of me, he says.

‘I was in the middle of celebrations for my 50th, then I had some sad family news and then I just spiralled. I felt like I was letting everyone down, all my family, so I decided to get proper help.’

His own experiences with his mental health issues and, subsequently, the fitness regime which helped change his life, are what inspired this mission to help others.

Lea, a builder, also owns Jackson Groundworks and had at least 100 people working at the company when he decided to get help for his depression and issues with addiction.

Instead of being ashamed of it, Lea decided to share what he was going through publicly.

‘A lot of men don’t ask for help, so when I did, I let everyone know. Instead of hiding away, I came out and told everyone what I'd done to try and get a bit more awareness – people just didn’t expect it to come from someone like me.

‘Blokes shouldn’t be frightened to ask for a bit of help,’ he adds.

After taking time out to work on himself, Lea says things began to turn around and he puts much of this success down to fitness and learning to train, as well as three personal trainers in particular who helped him along the way.

‘I started training with Gary Burch, Micky Parker and David Birmingham. I was brand new to it, they’ve all had their issues as well, I spoke to them,’ he says.

‘They got me training and I still train with them to this day, now they train in our gym. Those lads saved me, just by getting me to come and train, It just makes you feel so much better,’ adds Lea.

Since switching parties for climbing mountains and jumping out of aeroplanes, raising thousands for local charity Hannah’s Holiday Home Appeal, Lea wanted to keep spreading the message, helping people to see for themselves what fitness can do for mental health.

‘Once I realised that fitness is the best medicine for depression, I just wanted to try and get that across to people.’

The feedback from the sessions Lea launched at the start of the year has been overwhelmingly positive.

With two family members having recently been diagnosed with cancer, Kerry McCloud is one member benefitting both physically and mentally from the support of the programme.

‘I’ve got a lot going on in the background, I want to get fit but you have no motivation,’ she says.

‘It’s hard, but with someone there to motivate you and keep you going – it’s amazing. I don’t want to let anyone down so I know I’ve got to go, it’s making me feel so much better already.

‘I’m not a morning person but I look forward to waking up at 5am to go to the gym!’

Another member of the group, Dan Williams, said: ‘Since I had my surgery back in August, it’s safe to say I put plenty of weight back on, probably about half of what I had lost previously! A month off work didn’t help, eating through boredom.

‘It took me a lot longer to heal than I thought it would. Which put me way off with my training plan and targets. Finding motivation to get back on track hasn’t been easy.

Dan, who lost 5lb in one week through training at 1Basecamp, credits Lea and David for their support.

‘They’re killing me, but this place has given me the boost I needed to sort myself out, I’m in the best head space I’ve been for some time,’ adds Dan.

Lea adds: ‘I’ve got another lad who was spending £500 a week on cocaine, he text me last night to say thank you so much for what you've done.’

The gym-owner is proud of the community he has created and how far everyone has come in such a short amount of time.

‘Some need to lose weight, some need to kick the addiction, it’s all mental and hopefully it seems to be working,’ he says.

‘They’re all posting their runs and their walks and they’re all training with me. I’m getting them out of their comfort zones, making them train early in the morning and late at night – on Friday nights when they might have gone to the pub, we’re training.’

For Lea, seeing the group succeed is all the payment he needs.

‘I know what rock bottom is, I’ve been suicidal, and there’s a lot of people who are really really struggling and very close to that place, and it’s a scary place to be.

‘What they don’t realise is they’re helping me too. I'm not doing it for a pat on the back, I’m doing it to help them, and that helps me too, it’s the best feeling. We finish on Feb 11, but that won’t be the finish, it’s only the start.

‘We’ve built a community at Basecamp, surround yourself with good people, it makes the difference.’