Thomas McKenna's personal fitness programme has brought him innumerable benefits to both body and mind. For more than a decade, the 38-year-old full-time carer from Drumchapel, Glasgow, had battled with clinical depression and drug addiction.

Thomas McKenna's personal fitness programme has brought him innumerable benefits to both body and mind. For more than a decade, the 38-year-old full-time carer from Drumchapel, Glasgow, had battled with clinical depression and drug addiction.

"I started feeling down when I lost my job with Ford 15 years ago," he says. "My self-esteem was completely shot. It was so low. I felt like a waster and completely worthless, so I turned to drugs to lift my mood. But obviously that only made me feel even worse."

After unsuccessful attempts to "clean up", McKenna got involved with the Scottish Drugs Forum (SDF) last year, which runs various courses for recovering alcoholics and drug users. McKenna's first course was a nutritional programme designed to help people to understand how, by eating a healthier diet and exercising moderately, they could improve their mood and general health. Following that, he started a 14-week fitness regime in January called Relaunch. It is run by Stephen Malloy, JogScotland's jog leader of the year.

"On Monday, Wednesday and Friday we go running in the morning and afternoon, and on Tuesdays and Thursdays we do weight sessions in the gym," says McKenna.

"When I first started running, I thought I was going to die. I wanted to stop immediately. But my body got used to it and I'm now a convert to exercise.

"It just makes me feel so good. It's unbelievable. It's not just making a difference to how I feel physically, but within myself - my head is clearer and I feel so much more confident now. I feel like I can look to the future now with hope," he says.