AS a youngster Raymond Wilkinson would do anything to duck out of his school PE lessons.

But fast forward more than seven decades and the Skipton grandfather, who turns 80 next month, visits the gym three times a week for a workout of cardiovascular exercise and weights.

Raymond, who will celebrate his birthday on April 18, has his wife, Valerie, to thank for getting him into keep fit around 25 years ago.

He said: "My wife went to Shapes on Duke Street and they started having an evening for men. She said 'do you want to have a go?' so I went and got bitten by the bug."

He started off by doing a 17 minute workout (he is doing nearly double that now) and putting in around two or three sessions a week.

The former BT engineer, who lives on Moorview Way, soon started to see the benefits.

He said: "I had been a big smoker up until 1955 and I was a bit weighty and up to 14 stone. With climbing up and down the stairs at work I was always out of breath but with going to the gym I found myself getting fitter."

Raymond, who has two daughters, moved from Shapes to other gyms over the years and now works out at Escape Health Club at Sandylands Business Park. He is the club's oldest member.

Along with Valerie, who is 70, he goes down on a Monday, Wednesday and Friday morning. He cycles, rows, steps and also hits the treadmill and cross trainer machines before doing weights.

He said: "There's quite a few people down there my own age so it's companionship as well as working out. It keeps me active."

He is hoping he will still be breaking a sweat in the gym when he's 90.

"Why not? I have a friend and her mother was 100 some time last year and up until two years ago she went bowling," he said.

Raymond added that elderly people should not think exercise and the gym was not for them.

He said: "You don't have to work hard. I do because I want to but if you don't want to you can still go there. They had a bloke of 82 who used to go there until before Christmas. He used to come in and went very slowly through about six or eight apparatus and that was it, but at least he was trying."

It might not be too long before there are three generations of the family at the gym.

Raymond and Valerie's daughter, Sue, is a member and the couple's 13-year-old twin granddaughters, Abigail and Samantha, are keen to join but will have to wait until they are old enough.

Raymond told the Herald he believed regular exercise was the key to keeping healthy. He also enjoys DIY and gardening while Valerie likes yoga and pilates. Their other hobbies - renovating dolls' houses, crosswords and sudoku - help to keep the grey matter in tip-top shape.

Jane Peggs, assistant manager at Escape, said Raymond was amazing.

She said: "He's so bright and alert and we have so much fun with him. Everybody likes Raymond because he comes in and he does not play at it. He puts in the time and the effort."