30/09/2025
Sam, 35, is one of our Personal Trainers and Gym Instructors at the Pavilion in Bromley. Sam specialises in helping people overcome addiction and find healthier lifestyles. However, his own wellbeing journey hasn’t been straight forward. His transformation from a heavy-drinking, fast-living broker life to wellness advocate wasn't planned – it was born from personal tragedy and a moment of complete burnout.
For 16 years, Sam worked in software and finance sales in London, embracing the stereotypical corporate lifestyle of three-piece suits and garish accessories. This career came with a darker side; heavy drinking and a party culture that consumed his twenties and early thirties.
The catalyst for change arrived six years ago when Sam and his daughter discovered his mother suffering a brain aneurysm. Although she survived, she now requires permanent care in a residential facility. This traumatic event planted the first seeds of doubt about his lifestyle and the example he was setting for his daughter.
Between 2022 and 2023, Sam hit rock bottom. Living alone in a small flat, he spent nearly every evening in pubs or snooker halls, channeling his entire salary into alcohol. He stopped cooking entirely for six months, surviving on whatever takeaway food he could find on the high street.
In September 2024, Sam walked into his office and told his manager he couldn’t continue. The realisation that he was spending his days convincing people to buy things they didn’t need had become unbearable. He wanted to help people instead.
Sam immediately began retraining as a personal trainer, earning his Level Two and Level Three qualifications by February 2025. However, he recognised he needed to transform himself first. Sam lost weight, he quit smoking, after starting at age 12, stopped va**ng, stopped drinking and overhauled his diet and exercise routine.
Now working at Mytime Active, Sam teaches functional fitness classes and runs circuit training classes, as well as delivering his own personal training sessions. But perhaps his most rewarding work comes through Mytime Active’s ‘MyClub’ programme, where he leads exercise sessions for adults with learning disabilities.
His ‘MyClub’ sessions combine basic body movements with games. Sam says: “I love working with the members of MyClub. It’s so life affirming, and I truly know I am making a difference to their day-to-day life. The sessions are all about movement, getting them out of the house, meeting other people and doing something different. I turn fitness into fun.”
Sam’s PT work focuses on helping people in recovery. He says: “There’s loads of people that want to quit alcohol in their 30s, 40s, 50s – the older generation that perhaps grew up in that lager culture. I understand from my own personal experiences that addiction, be that food, drink or drugs, is often about loneliness and a lack of self-worth. Hopefully, alongside support from organisations like the AA, I can help individuals replace the feeling of emptiness with physical activity and positivity.
“Since quitting my own unhealthy lifestyle I am much happier. I have so much more time and bundles of energy. I’m finally in a good place – with myself and my relationships. I value my new career – the personal connection and the ability to make a meaningful impact, rather than selling meaningless products.”
You can read more about Sam’s journey here: https://ow.ly/544P50X4e98
