She's Been Moving Since Before She Was Born (And She's Not Stopping Now)

At HerMove, we talk a lot about the moments that shape our relationship with movement. The first class that clicked. The sport that felt like home. The injury or life change that knocked us sideways, and what we did next.

Gemma Finlay-Gray, who works for Active Sussex, has been kind enough to share hers. And it's one of the most honest, relatable accounts we've come across: full of joy, frustration, privilege acknowledged, barriers named, and a love of movement that has bent and shifted and kept on going through every single decade of her life.

It Started Before She Was Even Born

Gemma's dad was a semi-professional footballer, and her mum was a keen sportswoman with a talent for table tennis and badminton. Some of Gemma's earliest memories are of watching eagerly from the football sidelines, waiting to be let loose on the pitch, and watching her parents play badminton with her grandparents in the garden over the washing line.

That early exposure to sport as something joyful, social, and simply part of everyday life laid a foundation that would carry her through everything that came next.

She was encouraged to try swimming, ballet, and gymnastics as a young child, and it was gymnastics that stuck, particularly after a ballet teacher told her she would never be tall enough and she realised she far preferred rolling and cartwheeling around at speed.

School: The Tomboy, the Competitive One, and the Frustrated Footballer

Gymnastics gave Gemma routine, discipline, and a passion for being active. It also gave her a social community outside of school, where she struggled to fit in with her peers. She was often labelled a tomboy or "competitive", which put her at odds with the social expectations placed on girls at the time.

A serious injury eventually forced her to stop gymnastics entirely, which was hard to process. But with sport-loving family around her, she turned to tennis and badminton, sports she still plays today.

Then came secondary school, and a frustration that will feel painfully familiar to many women of a similar age.

Despite repeatedly requesting to play football, the options available to girls were extremely limited. Gemma found it deeply frustrating. The sport she wanted was right there. She just wasn't allowed to play it.

Doing It Anyway

Gemma didn't let the system dampen her. Fuelled by her own passion and positive influences outside of school, she took PE at GCSE and then became the only female student at her sixth form to take it at A Level. That journey led her to a degree in Sport Science and Psychology, work experience at Wimbledon and Twickenham, and a growing awareness of just how underrepresented women were in sport, both as participants and in the workforce.

After travelling, her focus became sports development and advocating for better opportunities for women and girls. As she puts it: she's still working on that.

The Decades In Between

What makes Gemma's story so valuable is her honesty about the messy middle bits.

Her activity habits shifted as she moved through different life stages: new locations, new people, caring responsibilities, loss, pregnancy, and the postnatal period. She acknowledges both the negative experiences she has had and witnessed, and her own privilege in having had such a strong foundation of positive movement experiences from a young age.

That foundation, she says, has always given her a way back. Whether that meant walking instead of taking the car, trying something new to make social connections, or finding a way to fit movement into a changed family routine.

Now in her forties, Gemma continues to play badminton around work and childcare commitments, competing in the masters leagues and enjoying the mix of competition and community it brings. But with injuries becoming more frequent, and with the perimenopause on her radar, she's also thinking about building bone and muscle strength in other ways, with bouldering, paddleboarding, and sea swimming on her list.

What Gemma's Story Means for Our Community

There is so much in this account that resonates with the HerMove mission.

The early encouragement that makes all the difference. The school barriers that should not still exist. The life stages that pull us away from movement, and the small, sustainable ways we find our way back. The importance of community and social connection as a reason to keep going.

Gemma's story is not a highlight reel. It's a real account of a lifelong relationship with movement, with all the interruptions and adaptations that real life brings.

That's exactly the kind of story we want more women in East Grinstead to feel able to tell.

Want to Read More or Get Involved?

You can read Gemma's story in full on the Active Sussex website: activesussex.org

Active Sussex also has a brilliant library of resources supporting women and girls to be physically active, which is well worth a browse: Resources and Useful Information

There are also some great videos on male allyship in sport over on their This Girl Can Sussex hub: activesussex.org/this-girl-can-sussex-network

Want to help us keep sharing stories like this one? You can support HerMove here: buymeacoffee.com/hermove

Find out more about HerMove at hermove.uk