About Her Spirit

Her Spirit was founded by Mel Berry and Holly Woodford to make it easier for women to get active.

Holly and Mel became frustrated at how the needs of ALL women are being continually underserved in traditional sports, gym and leisure markets. 42% of women in the UK are not active enough for their health.  A persistent 5% gender gap remains between men’s and women’s activity levels and even more concerning the 12% gap in activity levels between Black, Asian and ethnically diverse women and white women and a 13% gap for women with a disability.

In 2018 they set out on a mission to change what was on offer for women and to find new ways to reduce the inequalities in sports and physical activity.  Since then Holly and Mel have run, swam, cycled and walked with hundreds of Her Spirit community members. They have also had their fair share of coffee, cake and chats to better understand the motivators and barriers of women starting and staying active

Armed with this rich insight they are launching their most audacious plan yet.  A plan that will change the way women experience sport and physical activity and in doing so builds a more active, healthier and fairer world together. A plan where the more minutes of activity you do the more good you can do for other women in your community. What if every minute of activity you do is valued and put into a fund that directly supports women on a low or no income so they can afford to go swimming, use the gym, enter a sporting event and access free sports equipment? 

Well, we are doing just that. Her Spirits Mission is to motivate 1 million women to be more active and in doing so raise £1 million to enable women on a low or no income to become more active.  Our mission will see the first increases in women’s physical activity rates for more than two decades and enable more women than ever to reach a healthy 150 minutes of heart-raising activity each week.

From the 1st of July, Her Spirit will establish the Her Spirit Women’s Sports Fund.  Her Spirit will be calling on funders and partners to match our collective minutes of activity to help us reach £ 1 million to invest in supporting women in members’ local communities.  Her Spirit will:

• Gift 1 Her Spirit Membership (worth £59.99) for every 150 minutes of activity completed in the community.
• Working with charities and community organisations we will gift 50% of every annual membership back to those communities.

Come and join the Her Spirit community and help us build a more active, healthier and fairer world together.