Julia Meakin, 65, of St Just is training to row the Atlantic

For most of her adult life, Julia Meakin’s weight was the first thing people commented on, and often the only thing. Not her academic career, not her two children, not the sense of humour that comes through the moment she starts talking. Just her size. Now, at 65, she is training to row across an ocean.

A lifetime of being told she was fat, lazy, or worse

Julia, who lives in St Just, says being a larger woman was simply “part of the backdrop of life”. “I was always aware of being a larger woman, and always made aware of it,” she said. “If I upset anyone, the default was always to call me fat, lazy or whatever.”

That backdrop started to shift after a horse riding accident in 2022 left her carrying extra weight and struggling with knee pain, the kind of injury that changes what your body can do almost overnight.

📷Julia Meakin before taking part in the trial.

A trial, a knee, and a call from her GP practice

The knee pain and the weight gain made Julia eligible for a two-year research trial at her GP practice, Atlantic Medical Group in Penzance, testing a new GLP-1 weight loss drug against a placebo. The trial, supported by the National Institute for Health and Care Research, also ran a sub-study for people with osteoarthritis, which Julia joined too. It is now closed to recruitment.

She enrolled in January 2024, and for the next two years her routine included monthly appointments with the research team, advice from a dietician, and a weekly self-administered injection using a pen device.

📷The Salty Seagals, from left: Julia's daughter Nancy Bamforth, Emma Lewis, Julia and Louise Thomas. Credit: Ben Cridge

Six stone lighter, and training for something much bigger

Over the course of the trial, Julia lost around six stone. She says she feels far better for it, and the change has done more than improve her knee. It has made an idea she had been quietly carrying possible.

“Although I had already started rowing before I took part, there’s absolutely no way I’d be planning to row across the Atlantic if I hadn’t lost that weight,” Julia said. “And there’s no way I’d have lost that weight without the trial.”

Gig rowing had been a long-held dream, and Julia finally acted on it during the Covid-19 pandemic, joining Pendeen Gig Club in Newlyn. She says she has never looked back since.

📷Julia Meakin in Newlyn. Credit: Ben Cridge

Meeting the woman who rowed an ocean deaf

It was through the gig rowing scene that Julia met Cornwall-based Mo O’Brien, the first deaf woman to row across one of the world’s oceans. Getting to know her is what turned a passing thought into a real plan, and Julia began seriously considering an Atlantic crossing of her own.

She has since acquired the specialist boat the challenge requires and is now training hard alongside three crewmates, among them her 25-year-old daughter, Nancy Bamforth.

📷Julia Meakin in rowing gear, Newlyn. Credit: Ben Cridge

The Salty Seagals

The crew have named themselves the Salty Seagals, and they are aiming to take on the Atlantic in December 2027.

“I’m a great advocate now for the benefits of these drugs, and we wouldn’t have them without these trials,” Julia said. “So I am forever grateful to my doctors for the chance to take part, and very grateful to the company that has developed the drug.”

Nearly 70,000 people took part last year

Julia is one of 69,462 people who took part in health and care research across Cornwall, Devon and Somerset last year, according to new data published by the NIHR. Nationally, the NIHR helped organisations recruit 878,698 volunteers for 4,536 studies across England in 2025/26, taking the total number of people supported to take part in research since April 2020 past 7.4 million.

Jo Davis, Network Director at the NIHR South West Peninsula Regional Research Delivery Network, said the region owed a debt to everyone who took part. “Their contribution is helping researchers develop better ways to prevent, diagnose and treat a huge range of conditions, while giving future patients access to the care they deserve,” he said.

“Julia’s story is a brilliant example of the real difference research can make. By choosing to take part in a study at her local GP practice, she has not only helped generate evidence that could benefit thousands of people in the future, but has also transformed her own life.”

Research is increasingly happening outside hospital walls, Jo said, as part of a wider shift toward community-based care. Across Cornwall, Devon and Somerset, GP practices alone recruited 7,568 participants into 58 studies over the year, with more running through pharmacies, opticians, care homes and other community settings. Hospitals still carried the bulk of it, with 57,897 people taking part in 517 hospital-based studies.

“We’re committed to ensuring that everyone, wherever they live and whatever their background, has the opportunity to take part in research that has the potential to improve lives,” Jo said.

Julia is now encouraging others to join the more than 9,000 Cornwall residents already signed up to the Be Part of Research website, to be contacted about studies they could take part in themselves. Her own next challenge starts with a training session, then another, then eventually a boat pointed west, across an ocean she is now fit enough to cross.

📷The Salty Seagals crew in training with Pendeen Gig Club, Newlyn. Credit: Ben Cridge