WESTCLIFF Rugby Club has opened its new player fitness centre named in tribute to Lt Aaron Lewis.
The facility – called Aaron’s Gym – features equipment including weights, rowing machines and punch bags and will enable to the club’s players to keep in shape off the field. All the kit was donated by the Aaron Lewis Foundation.
Talented rugby player Aaron played for Westcliff as a boy and stayed for around a decade up until his commission at Sandhurst.
The gym project came about in 2013 when Westcliff Rugby Club received confirmation they would be moving home due to a business regeneration project around their current base.
Officials from WRFC and the ALF then began discussions as to how they could work together on something in Aaron’s memory.
Simon Jones, an ALF trustee and ex-Westcliff player, said: “Over the last 12 months, we have been working with the committee and Origin Fitness to have a gym that is fit for purpose and to provide a safe fitness facility for the club and its up-and-coming players.
“We hope that the club’s youth will use the new gym to grow as players and to keep themselves fit and healthy.”
The opening comes on the 11th anniversary of his death in Afghanistan on his first operational deployment, aged 26.
To find out more about WRFC’s move, visit westcliffrfc.co.uk/the-new-clubhouse-development/