Health Club

Membership

Member Spotlight: Diane Dalton

28th March 2024

In this month's Health & Wellbeing Member spotlight, we meet Diane Dalton who has been a Goodwood Health & Wellbeing Member for 10 years. Diane has a long connection to the estate and the family.

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Diane graduated as a physiotherapist from Kings College in 1962, after three years working alongside other medical students, completing dissections and other anatomy-based learning. Following this, she went on to work at St. Bartholomew's Hospital before heading into private practice. It was shortly after this she was offered a position to be a locum for the Royal Ballet, unfortunately, this came at the same time as she was starting a family.

In 1987 she moved with her family to the Chichester area and went on, with her husband, to create the Daltons Natural Food Centre, a premises that supplied the local area with fresh trout and venison. Her skill with these animals she maintains to this day.

The centre would supply Goodwood Week and Susan, the late Duchess of Richmond and Gordon, would also regularly order a supply of meats for Goodwood House. The Daltons even went on to publish a cookbook, The Venison Cook.

Having moved on from this business Diane now relishes the opportunity to purchase foods from the Goodwood Farm Shop, knowing that they hold similar values regarding their food produce that she spent many years maintaining.

She went back to working privately as a physiotherapist and started serving the Richmond Family, being the late Duchess’ physiotherapist for 14 years.

It was from here that she learnt of the Goodwood Health Club but was always apprehensive of joining. It was her late husband who encouraged her to join as a member, where she has proudly remained for over 10 years. After attending fitness classes elsewhere, Diane began classes at Goodwood. She found the teaching to be excellent and all the classes and instructors very easy to connect with.

The thing she most connects with and enjoys is the social aspect of our membership base. In her words her love for health and wellbeing is fuelled by the other members she attends with; many she now counts as firm lifelong friends. Attending 10 classes a week, Diane is grateful to be around the younger members who help her to feel youthful and always smiling.