LAST year’s Fit Idol champion is urging people to follow his lead and sign up for this year’s challenge.

“It changed my life for the better,“ said Darren Wood, manager of the Evenhill restaurant and hotel in Littlebourne.

When the 36-year-old father-of-one entered last year’s competition he was a regular couch potato who struggled to keep up with his three-year-old daughter.

In the first Fit Idol session Darren passed out during the treadmill challenge, but over the eight week competition his fitness improved so much that by the last session he could run 2km in an impressive 10 minutes.

Darren has embraced his new healthy lifestyle and, nearly a year on, is still fit and active, enjoying cycling and trips to the gym.

With prizes totalling almost £2,000, this year’s competition is promising to be the best yet.

We are looking for four men and four women whose idea of exercise is getting a beer out of the fridge.

They must be willing to spend eight weeks improving their fitness levels, with the help of Active Life fitness experts Fran Pike and Dave Marks.

For the length of the competition, they will be given free passes to their nearest Active Life gym and once a week their fitness and improvement will be monitored in a compulsory session at Active Life’s Kingsmead gym in Canterbury.

Readers will be able to chart their progress each week pn this website and in the Kentish Gazette newspaper. The contest will be judged on who has made the most progress, so everyone stands an equal chance of winning.

Our Fit idol champion will receive a year’s five star gym membership, worth £420, at Active Life’s sports centres at Kingsmead, Whitstable Swimming Pool and The Pier, Herne Bay.

They will also win six months’ personal training worth £150 and a meal and night for two at the Hotel Continental in Whitstable, worth £135.

The runner up will receive six months’ Active Life gym membership and all eight contestants will be treated to a celebration meal at the end of the competition.

Darren said: “I would recommend anyone who gets out of breath just walking down the stairs to apply for this year’s Fit Idol and I wish all eight contestants the best of luck.”

* To be in with a chance of winning write to Fit Idol, 9 St George’s Place, Canterbury, CT1 1UU, by Monday, May 19.

Please include your daytime and evening phone number, name and address, plus a short letter explaining your lifestyle and what you want to get fit.