Meet Chekaine Steele, a Health Instructor who works within our Community Mental Health Team (CMHT) based at Newington and Lyndon.

Chekaine’s role is unique in that he primarily focuses on supporting 18–25-year-olds towards becoming more physically active. Between the ages of 14-16, Chekaine suffered with severe anxiety and obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) and found that sports and exercise helped to reduce his social isolation and gave him something to overcome his anxiousness and routines.

Working at the Trust for almost two years, Chekaine brings his lived experience to work every day. He is passionate about his role and how physical activity can help to transform the lives of the young people in our care.

Regular exercise has lots of physical and mental health benefits for young people, such as: improving fitness, providing an opportunity to socialise, reduce stress, increase concentration, encourage healthy growth and development and can even boost self-esteem.

When asked what makes his job so rewarding, Chekaine said:

“For me, seeing the positive impact physical activity and engagement can have on our service users’ mental health is what makes this job so rewarding. My advice for anyone wanting to improve their fitness levels would be start off small and build it up… Also don’t be too hard on yourself.”

If you need some inspiration as to the types of exercises you can try, why not visit www.nhs.uk/exercise today.