Transcending Generations, Flourishing Amid Adversity

When teenager Luke Fletcher and his grandmother, Pat Derbyshire, walked into Dragon CrossFit, they were both a little broken.

Fletcher had been bullied relentlessly throughout school; meanwhile, Derbyshire was on a long and difficult road to recovery following a near-fatal brain bleed. In fact, Derbyshire had no intention of starting CrossFit herself. But when she dropped Fletcher off for a CrossFit Kids class one day, affiliate owner Andy Edwards approached her.

“He said to me, ‘I’d like to help you,’” Derbyshire recalls.

Fletcher quickly grew to love CrossFit training and blossomed within the Dragon CrossFit community. As his confidence grew, the kids at school stopped picking on him.

“The world (has) a completely different outlook when you’re training with like-minded people,” Fletcher says. “The community is awesome, and it’s just something that everyone should do.”

Inspired by her grandson’s transformation, Derbyshire began coming to class on her own. Before long, the pair had inspired the whole family to start CrossFit.

“Training within a CrossFit affiliate has the ability to transcend generations,” Edwards says.

Relina Fletcher, Luke’s mother, agrees.

“It is purely about motivating, opening up a place for someone to feel safe, secure, and really encouraging just sport generally, regardless of whether you’re great, whether you’re OK, or whether you’ve got a disability,” she says. “It’s remarkable, to be honest.”

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CrossFit – All in the Family