Before the coronavirus pandemic hit, police officer Tracy Peacock, who lives with Crohn’s, enjoyed an active life, working full time in the Metropolitan Police’s firearms department and running fitness and swimming classes in her spare time.
Tracy had planned to take on a number of marathons in 2020, including the London Marathon and the Edinburgh Marathon. She had also signed up to do the Iron Man Triathlon, but of course all her plans were cancelled due to the pandemic.
When the 37-year-old, who lives in Chelmsford, received a letter from the NHS asking her to shield at home, she was determined to stay active, with some help from her family.
Tracy explains, “Back in March last year my niece and nephew said, ‘Joe Wicks is only doing PE lessons on the weekdays and we want to do something on the weekends, what can we do Auntie Tracy?’”
Setting up at WhatsApp Group from her phone, Tracy and her husband Ryan started to organise virtual weekend exercise workouts for family members, but when word about the classes spread, more and more of their friends and people from the local community asked if they could join in too.
“When the November lockdown happened, we’d built up quite a big base for our weekend classes,” says Tracy. “We decided to up our classes to four a day from Monday to Sunday … so we’ve got about 25 classes a week now, and I’m still working full-time from home.”
Tracy didn’t charge any money for the classes, but instead created an online donation page for Crohn’s & Colitis UK. She says, “We know that everyone is going through different financial difficulties at the moment, and we didn’t want to get paid, but Crohn’s & Colitis UK is the charity closest to my heart so I set up a JustGiving page.
“I said, ‘If you want to donate, you can donate, and if you can’t donate, don’t worry, you can still join in.’ By the end of the November lockdown, I think the Just Giving page was up to about £500. So, I kept it open.”
Tracy’s eight-year-old nephew Magnus has since added to her efforts, bolstering donations through his creativity.
“He said, ‘I'm going to create some cards.’ So, my brother-in-law Craig (Magnus’s Dad) got in touch with a printing company that said that they would do the printing for free. Magnus designed these little cards and we've sold them all over the country for our family.”
Tracy has vowed to continue with her virtual fitness classes. Her Just Giving page has now raised more than £1,000 for Crohn’s & Colitis UK and is still open.
“When our family members and friends say they want to pay us for the classes, I just send them the link and ask them to put some money on this, please!”
Follow Tracy’s fitness classes on Instagram.
