A NEW service aims to help executives cope with stress, and make their employees more productive.

Sarah Kekus is a nutritional therapist and yoga teacher from Greysouthen, near Cockermouth, who practises as The Health Architect. 

She set up the venture three-and-a-half years ago but is now offering additional services to businesses that want to improve the wellbeing of their staff.

The workforce packages range from nutritional therapy consultations and weight management coaching, to healthy eating workshops and demonstrations.

Workplace yoga classes can also be arranged.

Mrs Kekus, 46, said: “Elsewhere in the country wellness in a corporate way is huge but there doesn’t seem to be much in Cumbria.

“I can help people in the workplace. There are simple changes people can do to improve their health.

“I recently read that employees with poor dietary habits are 66 per cent more likely to be less productive.

"And people with unbalanced diets also take 15 percent more time off work, costing employers billions of pounds each year.

"So, I want to extend my services to local companies in order to help improve employee health and improve workplace efficiency – for mutual long term benefit.” 

Mrs Kekus combines evidence-based nutritional science with lifestyle recommendations.

The approach, she says, has been shown to support all the major systems of the body and is particularly effective in managing complex health conditions.

She retrained as a nutritional therapist after being made redundant from the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA) in 2010.

She studied for an MSc in nutritional therapy in York and then went to the Greek Cyclades islands to study yoga.

She added: “I’ve been working with individuals helping with a range of problems. About 20 percent are sports related but by far the majority are women with hormone imbalances,  fertility problems, some have type-2 diabetes or fatigue."

More online at www.thehealtharchitect.co.uk.