Ex-cabin crew making others feel sky high
JENNA Hill went from a Middlesbrough “council estate” to living the high life – literally – as a glamorous cabin crew member for Emirates in Dubai.
So when she lost her job and lovely Dubai apartment thanks to Covid, she was ‘heartbroken.’
The 34-year-old came back home to Spencerbeck not knowing what to do next.
A few short months later, she’s built up a successful ‘21-Day Challenge’ fitness venture.
Jenna Hill Fitness is now a community with hundreds of users across Teesside and around the world – and people have even said it’s “changed their lives”.
“I’ve always been into fitness,” Jenna says, “so I left school and worked in a gym.
“I had dyslexia and couldn’t read or write very well, which affected my confidence.
“My dad told me to ‘get a real job.’”
She added: “I worked for Emirates for six years, working my way up to Business Class.”
But with flights grounded worldwide during the pandemic, the aviation industry was “horrendous” – and Jenna was given the awful news she dreaded; she was being made redundant.
“I was living in Dubai with my own apartment,” she says, “I’d just met a boyfriend.
“I thought ‘God what am going to do now?’
“At 34, I wondered if I was too old to get back into fitness but I thought ‘no, I’m just going to do it.’
“I ended up moving back home and training my sister as a guinea pig.”
They started with just “one barbell, over on the field” near their homes.
Pretty soon, old school friends started asking Jenna to train them too.
Then lockdown struck again, the outdoor classes were off – and Jenna found a job in a gym as a PT.
“It just wasn’t for me, I also applied for a job with Ryanair, which I got.
“I even did the training.”
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But she knew her heart wasn’t in it – and what she really wanted to do was forge a career “making fitness accessible to everybody”.
“People had money in Dubai,” she says, “I’m from a council estate.
“Nobody has the money to spend £30 an hour on a personal trainer.
“This programme is £1 a day.” The first Zoom class had 19 girls and went out from a tripod in Jenna’s “mam’s front room”.
“I was buzzing, I’d never actually done a class and the first one was horrible.
“But I absolutely love it.”
She devises calorie and protein plans via the website and sets challenges as well as Zoom classes.
There are more advanced classes, another instructor covers the low impact workouts and yoga is also being added.
And a Whatsapp group keeps everyone motivated.
It’s Jenna’s aim to eventually create a hub for fitness, nutrition and mental health.
“We’ve got people from Malta, Greece, Dubai, Palma – because I’ve travelled with work so much, I met a lot of people.
“We have a 60-year-old lady on who absolutely loves everybody.
“Some girls from the start are still in it now, they’re on their fifth challenge.
“The average weight loss has been around 8lbs in 21 days and people don’t feel like they’ve been on a diet, because they enjoy it.
“You don’t every month.
“”People have said I’ve changed their lives, and they are stronger mentally.”
Sonia Scurr took up Jenna’s challenge – and dropped twoand-a-half stone.
She’s down to 9st 13lbs now. “At the start of challenge, I was 12 stone, very unhappy about the way I looked,” Sonia says.
“It was really getting me down and depressed.
“I am now on challenge five and it has honestly changed my life for the better...
“Mentally and emotionally, a stronger, better me I’m so happy with the results.”
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