FEATURE
welcome to the club Building a community…
Friendships are fundamental to our lives – though not always easy to find. Fiona Stubbs meets Hannah Lunn-Courtnell, whose quest for connection led to a thriving community.
F
RIENDS. They play a key role in our lives – from feelings of connection and belonging to emotional support to fun and laughter. But how easy is it, really, to make meaningful friendships – especially when you find yourself in a new place? This was the dilemma facing Hannah Lunn-Courtnell, when she moved to Chesterfield from Bedfordshire four years ago. After devastating family loss, Hannah moved north to be near her grandparents and discovered a situation many women in their late 20s and 30s experience. “As I was approaching my 30s, I found friendships were changing and were hard to sustain,” says Hannah. “Some were having babies, others travelling and others still partying. “Then when I moved here, I realised how difficult it is to make new female friendships. As a woman, you don’t go up to other women in a bar and say ‘do you want to be my friend?’”
The answer, ultimately, lay in a new career direction and inspiration from her closest family as Hannah built not just individual friendships but a community of supportive, like-minded women. Initially working in hospitality, Hannah trained as a mat and Reformer Pilates teacher after experiencing both mental and physical benefits of yoga and Pilates. She went on to set up her own studio, Hannah’s House Pilates, in a garden room at her home in New Whittington… and a new community was born. It’s been a long, at times heartbreaking, journey for Hannah beginning when her mum, Andrea, was diagnosed with breast cancer. “I was five when she was first diagnosed,” recalls Hannah. “As a family, we had such a positive mental attitude. My dad would always say we’d focus on positives: that they get you through. After a mastectomy and extensive treatment, mum did get better.” Hannah completed school and studied Fashion Buying Management
at the University of Westminster, graduating with a first-class degree. But, in her final year of university, she received more devastating news. “My parents were on a tiger safari in India – it was dad’s lifelong dream to do that,” she says. “They’d had the best day, and had seen a tiger, when he fell ill. They were in a jungle, with no immediate access to a hospital. He was in a coma for about eight weeks.” A bleed on his brain left her dad, Brian, with a traumatic brain injury and needing permanent care. More heartache was to follow for Hannah. She says: “Mum celebrated 10 years of being cancer-free, but in the 11th year it came back and had spread to several parts of her body. This time she didn’t get better. “After caring for, and losing, mum my life fell apart. I fell into a deep depression, verging on alcohol addiction to get me through. I was out all the time, partying and drinking – masking my pain as much as possible. “I was close to suicide, to be honest.
Friends together... at a community event organised by Hannah.
50 Reflections September 2025
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