A HULA hooping Facebook group set up by a Basingstoke woman has become a surprising success.

Kath Routledge started the “Hoop with Kath” Facebook group at the end of July to motivate herself to exercise by hula hooping.

Originally expecting the group to remain small, Hoop with Kath has almost 2,800 members at time of writing.

Kath explained: “Back in July I bought myself one of those weighted hula hoops.

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“I’m that kind of person that buys fitness equipment, and it gathers dust in the cupboard after using it once or twice, so I thought, with the summer holidays and me not doing my usual work, that I would commit to hula hooping every day.

“And I thought that it would be great to get a group together, so I put it on Facebook and said ‘would anyone like to join me?' It was more accountability for me to show up and hoop every day.’

“And over the first couple of days my Facebook group grew quite rapidly.”

Kath has since expanded the focus of the group, starting a YouTube channel and adding additional monthly challenges.

She said: “I did an August challenge to start with and then in September, just to make it a bit more fun and a bit more interesting, I added steps in.

“So, I did my hula hooping and 10,000 steps a day, and others have joined me in that as well.

“Everyone sets their own targets, it’s not about trying to do ‘X minutes every week’ it’s about picking it up everyday and just exercising, so it’s all about movement, motivation and fun.”

Kath called the group ‘really supportive’ and added that she had received lovely feedback from members of the group.

She said: “I’ve had some amazing feedback about how it’s supporting people’s mental health.

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“I had someone email me out of the blue saying that she was quite severely depressed, and this was helping her get up everyday and helping her do something to motivate her through those dark times.

“It started off as a little bit of fun for me, a bit of accountability for me, but has spiralled into something a lot more than that which has been quite amazing.”

The group can be found on Facebook at facebook.com/groups/hoopwithkath.