BENEFICIAL for mind and body, yoga will also give a boost to a host of good causes.

Swindon yoga teacher Jill Hoon is inviting yoga fans to be part of Swindon Mindful Movement and help raise money for charity by taking part in weekly yoga sessions. The sessions will take place in the Uptown Yoga Studio in Old Town – an atmospheric space with beautiful varnished floorboards in the loft of an old building off Wood Street. In the muted light, and high above the rush of the town, Jill teaches a range of yoga classes.

Now this space will also host a different local yoga teacher every Friday from 11.30am to £12.30pm. The teachers will each offer a different approach and yoga experience – and the proceeds from the sessions will be donated to a charity of the teacher’s choice. So far, Mind, Oak and Furrow Wildlife Rescue Centre, Swindon’s Night Shelter, Her Future Coalition, Prospect, Endometriosis UK and Blurt it Out are all set to benefit from the yoga sessions.

“It’s part of being a yogi, to give back,” Jill said. “I was thinking of ways to help others. We did the Yoga in the Dark last year but I wanted to do something on a more regular basis.

“I took a group of women on a retreat at the beginning of July, and there was a coaching session that made me think about what I wanted to do.”

Jill contacted other members of Swindon’s yoga teaching community and put the programme together. The first session will be Friday September 7 and led by Jill herself. So far, seven have been planned.

“Working in Wood Street, I am constantly seeing homeless people on the street and it breaks my heart,” she said. “So money raised at this session will be helping the Night Shelter in Swindon.”

The following week, Catherine Bailey will lead a yoga session in aid of the Her Future Coalition, which provides shelter, education and employment to survivors of gender violence and human trafficking. The third session, with Kerry Hinns, will raise funds for Blurt It Out, which supports people suffering from depression. The suggested donation for each session is £8 to £10 – but participants are obviously welcome to dig deeper if they wish.

Jill, 45, has been running her yoga studio for about a year. She first tried yoga in her late teens and started teaching six years ago, after training at an ashram in the United States. Jill trained in the Sivananda style, but teaches vinyasa, a flowing form of yoga.

Her first love, however, was ice skating and she competed in the British Championships when she was 18. Jill was born in Kingston and went to school in Twickenham, and started ice skating aged 11.

“We lived by the Richmond ice rink. I saw this massive building, and I thought, that looks amazing,” she recalled. “My brother and I started skating, and we both became ice dancers. I loved it – it was my life.”

The brother and sister team came seventh in the British Championships, and Jill went on to teach ice skating. She married an American and moved to the United States in 2003, and she worked as a gymnastics teacher in Louisiana. Four years later, she moved back to Britain and started teaching ice skating at the Link Centre. Unfortunately she had an accident on the ice and badly broke her ankle – leading to two operations.

“The doctors didn’t know if I would be able to skate again,” she said. “It really knocked me back and I had a bit of depressions. I wondered what the hell was going on. I couldn’t skate with the plate in my ankle, so I had the second operation to take it out. Then I could skate but it was uncomfortable.”

Jill returned to the US with her husband in 2011, which is when she renewed her interest in yoga and took the teacher training course, before returning to Swindon for good in 2013. She now runs eight yoga classes from her studio, as well as two classes at secondary schools and some private lessons.

“I have four beginners’ classes a week, and some next level classes and one heated yoga class on Friday nights,” she said. “People come for time out, to press the pause button and come back to themselves. It’s like a mini vacation, to breathe a little slower and connect with the body.”

And for those daunted by the prospect of a yoga class?

“Come to the beginners’ class. Everybody can participate and find what works for them. You will be joined by many people feeling the same way,” she said.

For more information about the charity yoga sessions and Jill’s classes, visit swindonyogaclasses.com.