Samantha Beacham

I recently used this gym as a new wheelchair user, but unfortunately, my experience was nothing short of awful. From the moment I arrived, the disabled lift wasn’t working. When I entered the pin, the door wouldn’t open. I asked the only staff member downstairs for help, and his response was, “I’m with a client, can you ask the guy upstairs?” Thankfully, his client insisted he help me, and he eventually opened the lift using his own code.

The lift itself is extremely difficult for a wheelchair user to operate alone, and I had to ask for help to get back down, as once again, my pin code didn’t work. To make matters worse, the toilet is upstairs, so I had to go through the whole process a second time. This gym is absolutely not accessible for disabled people—during unstaffed hours, a wheelchair user wouldn’t even be able to access the toilet! Other PTs helped me by using their own code to make the lift work but were laughing about the fact that it isn’t fit for purpose, as the door is so heavy that I couldn’t open it myself. They didn’t seem to understand why the lift wouldn’t work with my pin code.

After this humiliating experience, my partner emailed head office. They responded by saying I needed an induction to use the lift, which I’m happy to do. However, when I contacted the Llantrisant branch to schedule an induction after 5pm (as I work 9-5), I was told it had to be before 4pm since managers aren’t available after 5pm. If I wanted a weekend induction, I’d have to wait for a distant future date.

I’m really upset and embarrassed by this whole situation. This gym is far from accessible, and I wouldn’t recommend it to any disabled person. A truly terrible experience.