It goes without saying that the global pandemic brought challenge and heart-break for so many since early 2020. However, we do feel it's important to remember these times, as we also saw incredible levels of support in the community. We were - and remain - deeply touched by the support we say from our clients and team as we navigated the challenges and did all we could to help people through the difficulties that we all faced. Even now, in 2024, like many businesses we are still affected by the events of the last few years. However we feel lucky that we're still here, as so many businesses couldn't survive.
Following a meeting with all of our team, we took the decision to close the doors at our Denne Parade practice. This was a week before the official lockdown order came, but we belived it was the right thing to do. The opening of our new premises in the Carfax was put on hold until the situation was more clear.
Following a quick trial, we realised that we could put a number of our classes onto an online platform. We connected with over 1,500 clients who attended our classes, and using Zoom managed to launch a timetable of over 55 classes a week. We genuinely appreciate how supportive our clients and team were at this time, getting used to this new way of doing things. You can see a video on this page from our team to our clients as we were all locked down and missing everyone. We were apart, but still together.
As we emerged from the first lockdown, we opened our site in the Carfax for the first time. It was wonderful to be able to show clients around, and we were joined by a number of therapists and instructors as this site was opened.
As you will remember, late 2020 brought a number of challenges with short 'circuit break' lockdowns, and an increase in restrictions as we finished the year. Many of the services we provide - such as Physiotherapy and Sport Therapy - could continue during this time, whereas holistic therapies could not. We're proud of our ability to still deliver these clinical services with increased anti-infection protocols, in turn taking pressure off the public health system. Whilst classes could reopen for smaller numbers, we took the decision to keep the majority of our classes online to ensure consistency for our clients on the run up to Christmas.
2021 brought the enormous second wave, which was one of the most devastating and heart-breaking periods of the pandemic. Almost fully locked down again, our deeply clinical services could continue supporting clients who needed us. All other elements were full closed, however, and all of our classes remained online. Our second site in the Carfax closed once again, until further notice.
Due to the huge vaccination programme society began to open up again in the middle of 2021. We were therefore able to bring a large amount of classes back to the studio, and open once again for all therapies. Carfax also opened once again, for therapies and a number of classes. As you can imagine, we worked with a huge numbers of protocols to ensure safety for all of our team and clients.
 Winter 2021/ Early 2022
With the rise of the Omicron variant, we saw a huge amount of infections in the community, despite their being a broader 'opening up' across society. Whilst no longer legally bound to work within a tight framework of protections, we took the decison to focus on maintaining the steps that we had always taken throughout the pandemic. These include mask protocols, increased ventilation, track and trace where required, and other steps such as temperature checks.
As above, we continue to do all that we can to keep everyone safe and minimise CoronaVirus infections. We're proud that we have had no infections reported as a result of vists to our premises, and we believe our protocols are responsible for this. We look forward to brighter days of course, and a time when it is all fully behind us. However whilst CoronaVirus does continue to present a challenge - especially to the more vulnerable members of society - we remain focused on providing a safe environment for everyone.
Overall however we'd like to thank all of clients and team for their support during these difficult years. We're honoured to have been able to help as much as we can.