Ayrshire College is getting elderly members of the community active as students on their HND Fitness, Health and Exercise course work with them on a personal fitness programme.

The group meets every Friday from 11am-12pm and individuals set their own specific targets to meet, such as improving flexibility or upper body strength.

There is also a major emphasis on social interaction with the group and before the students went on their Easter break, everyone sat down for cakes and coffee to get to know each other better following their workout sessions.

Roy Munro is 68 and regularly takes part. He said “There are obvious benefits to us coming here.

“When we first started, the students took various measurements - flexibility, lung capacity, body fat percentage, blood pressure and BMI. They re-took the measurements in January and all of my results had improved.

“I’ve also made friends with a few people through this. I was speaking to one person earlier who told me “I wish they’d make me go faster on my running machine.”

“Which was incredible to hear as when I first saw him three years ago he wasn’t up to running fast. I see a huge difference in that man now.”