Our story
Live Well East Lothian (formerly East Lothian Cardiac-Pulmonary Rehab Group) is a small charity, established in 1992, aiming to offer gentle exercise, relaxation, and advice for patients living in East Lothian who have heart problems, who may have undergone heart surgery, suffer lung problems, have diabetes or just want to get fitter.
Classes run in Prestonpans, Haddington, Musselburgh, Tranent, Dunbar and North Berwick and are all provided by specially qualified instructors. If there is demand in other East Lothian areas, we’d love to hear about it! We are continually looking for funders and fundraisers – especially to maintain the latest classes and expand into new ones as the demand grows.
We also provide Long Covid classes also available on demand.
As of 2022 Live Well East Lothian is registered to the British Society of Lifestyle Medicine (BSLM). From 1992, it registered as an independent Charity known as East Lothian Cardiac Pulmonary Rehab group.
Who are the BSLM?
The BSLM is an independent charity, set up to promote the role of lifestyle medicine in improving people’s health and wellbeing. We believe many chronic diseases can be prevented, managed and even reversed by properly applied lifestyle medicine principles.
The society was founded in 2016 by two GPs and a surgeon – Dr Rob Lawson, Laurence Stewart and Dr Michael Boyle.
We now have more than 2500 members drawn from a range of disciplines including primary and secondary care clinicians, allied and public health professionals, scientists, educators, researchers and patients.
We are part of the Lifestyle Medicine Global Alliance, a network of lifestyle medicine societies in countries across the world, and the European Lifestyle Medicine Council.
What is Lifestyle Medicine?
Lifestyle Medicine is an evidence-based discipline which aims to support patients to prevent, manage and reverse certain chronic conditions, using supported behaviour change skills and techniques to create, and sustain lifestyle changes.
Lifestyle Medicine focuses on helping patients to eat more healthily, stay active, sleep better, improve social connections and mental health, and reduce harmful substance use. It also considers broader factors impacting on individuals’ health and wellbeing including ecological health, poverty and health inequality.
To find out more about the BSLM and lifestyle medicine visit https://bslm.org.uk/.
Our Instructors
Al Langlands
Al has worked with Live Well East Lothian for over 8 years as a qualified REPS Level 4 Exercise After Stroke instructor. He leads Level 1 classes in Musselburgh, North Berwick and Haddington, and one of the Level 2 classes in North Berwick.
His classes are all run with an emphasis on humour; incorporating fun, effective, safe exercise designed to ensure that whatever the participants’ medical condition, they can improve their fitness and outlook.
Away from Live Well East Lothian he runs a personal training and physiotherapy business locally, is a keen cyclist and has put this to good use - having undertaken a couple of extreme cycling challenges to raise money for the charity.
Anna Faulkner
Anna has her Exercise to Music, Level 2 Certificate in Fitness Instructing and has been teaching a variety of classes for ELC/Enjoy Leisure for 18 years. She got involved with the Live Well East Lothian charity over 10 years ago and currently runs an on line zoom class for Live Well.
Anna also has the Body Balance qualification (a mix of yoga, pilates, stretching, strengthening and relaxation). She is passionate about all that lovely mind/body stuff and to that end regularly includes very simple elements of stretching/relaxation in all her classes. She has recently taken a Level 3 course with the Energywise Academy – ‘Designing an exercise programme for older adults’ so that she can feel confident working with this demographic and know that she is doing the right thing.
She believes that movement is the key to health and well-being and all her class members are reminded of this on a regular basis!
Nikki Sprott
A love of dance and a strong belief in the positive effect of exercise on physical and mental health inspired me to make a career change in 2019. Having already achieved the Level 2 Exercise to Music and Zumba Instructor qualifications in 2014 I then added the Level 3 GP Referral Instructor training. This has given me a deep understanding of how to deliver exercise in an effective, safe and enjoyable way whilst taking into account various health conditions.
Following a move from Edinburgh to East Lothian I was lucky enough to become involved with Live Well, supporting the team in classes across the county. Alongside instructing the Level 1 and 2 classes, I've been delighted to be able to bring a new inclusive dance-based class to the programme.
One of the things I enjoy most about the classes is seeing the support and friendships between the participants - it's a lovely community to be a part of.
Chris Rolland
I have in recent years developed a progressive passion for fitness and health. My journey started from completing a football course with street league to find either work or further study at college. I then went on to college to accomplish an HNC in Fitness, Health and Exercise. I have recently obtained an honours degree in Physical Activity, Health and Wellbeing at Queen Margaret University.
Whilst on placement at QMU, I have developed a passion whilst working alongside qualified level 4 instructors with people who have or have had chronic conditions such COPD, cardiac rehab and falls prevention.
I am aspiring to become a Level 4 specialist instructor myself in falls prevention, cardiac rehab and stroke rehab in the near future.
Fiona Morrison
Fiona has her Exercise to Music qualification and has been teaching various classes throughout East Lothian with Enjoy Leisure and Live Well for over 4 years. During the Covid pandemic, Fiona lead classes via zoom and decided to leave her full time job as a retail store designer to become an integral member of the office team and to lead classes in Haddington, Dunbar and Tranent.
In 2020 the qualification, "Designing Exercise Classes For Older Adults" has given her a much better understanding of the challenges faced, particularly by older adults, when exercising and how to best help everyone to exercise safely. Studying for a Diploma in Supporting Clients with Long Term Conditions, Fiona now feels this will enhance her provision of classes for the charity and help those who attend classes with a much better understanding of the issues faced when living with long term conditions.
Outside of the charity work, Fiona enjoys walking and wild swimming - or just dookin’ in the sea. And yes, that’s all year round. Brr!
Fiona says, “the best part about my role as an instructor, is meeting all of the wonderful participants who come to the classes every week. Seeing their health and mood improve through exercise and the social interaction of the classes is an absolute joy!”
Morag Hammond
My career in fitness spans more than three decades, from the eighties ‘Jane Fonda’ days through to the present time.
After years of teaching 20+ high impact classes a week I had to re-assess the effects this was having on my body. I decided to qualify in Cardiac Rehab, Falls Prevention & Exercise Referral, working in a GP surgery in the town of Buckie (Moray) which had it’s own gym, gave me the opportunity to increase my knowledge, experience and understanding for many conditions, something I am truly grateful for.
After returning to my hometown of Edinburgh in 2009, I quickly re-established myself within the industry working out of Westwoods Health Club, Queen Margaret University, teaching classes in the community at Spartans FC and a local church hall in Leith. I’m also involved in teaching zoom classes for Live Well EAst Lothian. I am a qualified Level 4 Instructor, and work as tutor/assessor in the industry.
Laura Ross
I decided to have a complete career change 14 years ago, becoming a group fitness instructor and personal trainer. I had always loved being a class participant so I developed what was a hobby into a part time then full time job as my daughter got older.
In 2020, I embarked on my Level 3 GP referral qualification, quickly followed by Level 4 Cancer Rehabilitation. These opened up opportunities to lead Cancer Rehab classes and be involved in an online clinical trial, SafeFit, throughout lockdown. After qualifying in Level 4 Cardiac Rehab in 2022, I started covering some Live Well East Lothian classes and became a permanent member of the team in 2023, teaching two of the Dunbar classes alongside Chris.
Whilst I still love teaching my mainstream classes, I find the health condition classes even more rewarding, being able to help and empower those with health conditions to use movement and exercise to manage their health and wellbeing. You can see how much better the participants feel for it by the end of the class (both from the physical exercise but also from the social aspect too) and it has a huge impact on their day-to-day activities. It has been great getting to know the participants over the past few months and I would love to see the classes grow so that more can benefit from them.