LADIES expecting a quiet evening at a meeting of their local WI enjoyed a surprise fitness class after their planned speaker was forced to cancel.

Members of the Colehill WI were due to hear a talk about gardening at their February gathering.

However, when the speaker had to back out of the engagement due to illness, Zumba Gold instructor Julie Channen stepped in to help.

Angela Hawkins of the club said: "Four days before the meeting, our speaker said she wasn't able to be there.

"I started to think about who we might have along instead and I thought of Julie.

"She's a fantastic fitness teacher and so I decided to get in touch with her to see if she'd mind stepping in."

Julie, who leads a number of fitness classes in Dorset, agreed to help out at the meeting, which took place at the Colehill Memorial Hall on February 8.

However, when she arrived, she realised many of the participants weren't wearing suitable shoes for fitness training, and quickly decided to modify the exercises.

Angela said: "Julie was quite concerned when she arrived as lots of people didn't have the right footwear.

"We thought if anyone had an accident it would be terrible.

"But she's so good that she was able to adapt the exercises as she went along. Some of our members were able to stand and move around, while others could sit and do chair-based exercises instead."

In addition, Julie gave a talk about the importance of exercising before leading the workout class.

Angela said: "It was absolutely brilliant.

"She gave a short speech and then for the rest of the hour we did our exercises.

"We have quite a few members, around 50 in total, and 40 of the ladies were there for the February meeting, so it was quite a big class to teach."

Angela said Julie, who specialises in training men and women over the age of 50, went down a storm with members of the group.

"Julie is a lovely, gentle person, and the night was a real hit," she said.