A WEE COUNTY gym was recently named best gym in Forth Valley at a prestigious awards show.

uGym, based in Tillicoultry, won the honour of Best Gym in Stirling, Clackmannanshire and Falkirk at the 2022 Scotland’s Business Awards at the Inchyra in Grangemouth on Sunday, August 28.

The gym opened a little more than one year before the first Covid-19 lockdown but has survived those uncertain times and gone from strength to strength.

Jack Urquhart, whose family owns the gym, told the Advertiser: “Obviously with everything that’s been going on in the last couple of years it’s nice to come away with it so we’re quite happy.”

Jack believes the gym was nominated for the award by a member and admits they didn’t know anything about it.

He continued: “It was all public, a public nomination and a public vote. We didn’t actually know we were nominated until it came in the post. We didn’t know we were finalists until it came through the post and we didn’t know we’d won it until the night so it was all through the public which makes it even better.”

Jack also detailed the gym’s struggles having only been open around 14 months before the pandemic.

He said: “We opened in January 2019 so we had about a full year, a full year and a bit just before the first lockdown so we managed to get a good foundation behind us which was ideal.

“Then we were shut for five months, reopened for three months and then shut for another four and a half months. We’ve been open again since April last year so it’s been challenging, it’s been difficult but we’ve just done everything we can to adapt and grow through that time to better what we offer and it’s paid off.”

The gym has been involved in its fair share of charity work since opening its doors. It has held fundraisers for the Scottish Association for Mental Health and last year members lifted a whopping 1,000,000kg in five days to raise money for the Dumfries and Galloway Wheelchair Track Athletics Club who were targeted and had their equipment set on fire.

Jack added: “Membership numbers are good, we’re doing what we can for the community and obviously to receive the award was the cherry on top.

“We do have a foundation of members who have been with us since the start so it is a pretty tight group and very much a community feel.”

Monthly memberships at uGym start at £30 per month.

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