'I had strength that I didn't know I had'

A woman has described how exercise helped her cope in the aftermath of two major life events.

Liz Cromwell, from Langley, Slough, first started going to the gym after her baby was stillborn, with support from the fitness community helping her talk about what had happened.

Several years later, she then discovered Zumba as a way of coping with the "silence" after the death of her husband of 30 years.

Now, she is a qualified fitness instructor and is hosting a Zumba event on 21 June, with the hope of helping others.

Ms Cromwell said her fitness went "downhill" following the stillbirth of her baby.

She described how she would take her children to sports training every week, but she would just "sit in the stands" - until one day when she walked into the leisure centre and saw a boot camp going on.

"In my head, I thought 'I can do better'," she said.

She joined the class the following week, marking the start of her fitness journey.

She started crossfit and then began lifting weights, progressing to national, and then international, competitions.

"I had strength that I didn't know I had," she said.

She said with support from the community she was gradually able to start talking about her stillbirth.

But then, just after lockdown, her husband was diagnosed with colon cancer and told he had six months to live.

To begin with, she said she "pushed herself" in her final powerlifting competition because she knew it would be the last one her husband was able to attend.

She made lifestyle changes for both her and her husband to maximise the time they had left together.

But when he died in January 2023, she went downhill again.

"My best friend is gone," she said. "For days I wasn't eating, for days I wasn't taking a shower."

But then, one day, her daughter said something that changed her life.

"She was like 'I'm not going to lose you the way I lost dad'," she said.

"That was a wake up call for me."

Ms Cromwell started going to the gym again, but she said it was still hard to return to the "silence" of the house afterwards - but then she walked past a Zumba class and heard the music "banging".

She went to the class the following week, planning to "hide" at the back.

"But the music just hit something in me," she said.

"I shut the world off and I just started to express myself through that movement."

Now, she is a Zumba instructor and is preparing to host an event celebrating "global music, movement and healing" at Slough & Langley College.

"We're a community to uplift each other," she said.

"Just come and have fun."

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