Hairy Biker Si revs up support for healthy eating

TV chef Si (49) took a tour of the centre and spoke to staff and users as he prepares to launch his Hairy Bikers’ Diet Club.

The scheme - which will be the first in the country - will see invited clients given access to the centre’s facilities, weekly weight management sessions and advice from the Hairy Bikers’ diet club website.

Si and his fellow Hairy Biker, chef David Myers, launched the diet club two years ago and have now teamed up with Maltby Leisure Centre to help tie it in with exercise and sport.

“The reality is that we started the scheme because we were actually morbidly obese and it’s not nice to think of yourself like that - it just creeps up on you,” he said.

“When you’re standing in front of three-and-a-half million people on telly, it makes you think.

“The point of the whole project is - if we can do it (get healthier), anyone can.”

Si - who suffered a brain aneurysm in 2014 - said he hoped the scheme would help people in Maltby get active.

He said: “It doesn’t need to be a massive thing. You don’t have to train to run a marathon in six weeks - it needs to be simple.

“It can be stuff like walking the dog for an extra half-an-hour, getting off the bus a stop earlier - everything helps.”

The Hairy Bikers Diet Club will be officially launched at Maltby Leisure Centre on Thursday, September 22.

Hayley Mills, contracts health and wellbeing manager for the centre, said: “We have had the accolade of being the best leisure centre in the UK twice so I think that’s what attracted Si and his team to Maltby.

“They have recognised that Maltby is above national for deprivation and wanted to help the community.

“This project is such a great opportunity to be involved with a scheme with people who have famously done it themselves.”

For more information or if you would like to join the diet club, call Maltby Leisure Centre on 01709 722567.