Mar 31 2008 Laura Sharpe
andy heatman main
A KEEP-FIT fan has been barred from his Merseyside gym after complaints that he was sweating too much.
Andy Heatman, from Maghull, was left humiliated after he was told there had been 15 complaints about his per- sonal hygiene. The 42-year-old psychiatric nurse, who teaches patients about cleanliness and hygiene, was confronted by staff at Cheshire Lines Health Club, in Maghull.
He said: “I was on the bike doing part of my usual routine when a member of staff walked over and sniffed me.
“I felt a bit paranoid but it was later in the week I was taken into the office to be told about the complaints.
“I kept waiting for the punchline but there wasn’t one, and when I went back as usual later in the week I was stopped from going any further than the entrance.”
The father-of-three said he was angry and embarrassed about what had happened and now feels paranoid about his body odour.
He said: “I work out for two hours, four or five times a week. I use the bikes, treadmill and cross trainer so of course I sweat.
“But no-one has ever said anything about my body odour, I use showers, shower gel, deodorant just like everyone else.”
But all is not lost for Mr Heatman, after he signed up at a gym closer to home where managers said he was allowed to sweat as much as he liked.
Mr Heatman added: “I’ve been with Cheshire Lines for four years and paid over £1,200 to them, and this is how they treat me.
“The last time I went on a bike and someone came on the one next to me I felt paranoid but I think I’ve got beyond that now.
“I’ve signed up at Total Fitness (at Switch Island) and they just laughed when I told them about the complaints. They said that if I wasn’t sweating then I wasn’t working hard enough on their equipment.”
Mr Heatman and his wife, Jill, have demand a month’s refund from Cheshire Lines, £25.
Cheshire Lines gym owner Bill Martin said: “We did everything humanly possible to avoid humiliating him.
“We have standards here as well as any other gym has standards.”
http://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/liverpool-news/local-news/2008/03/31/barred-from-gym-for-sweating-too-much-100252-20696299/