IT has around 1,000 members, runs exercise sessions under the supervision of trained instructors and has given a new lease of life to hundreds of people.

But far from being some swanky health spa, the Bournemouth Heart Club is one of only a handful of purpose-built cardiac rehabilitation units in the country.

The club was set up as a registered charity nine years ago to help patients who had undergone heart surgery or had a heart attack get back to a normal life.

Since the first phase of its building opened in the grounds of the Royal Bournemouth Hospital in 1996, the service has expanded to become the biggest in the Wessex region.

Last week, the club's life patron, Baroness Cox, opened phase two of the building, which houses a second gymnasium, an enlarged rest area, a clinic room, and redesigned storage space.

Consultant cardiologist Dr Adrian Rozkovec, the driving force behind the club and its life president, said: "We have come a long way from a small beginning."

When he arrived at the hospital in 1988, there was no cardiac rehabilitation locally and no national recognition of the need.

Dr Rozkovec believed that a structured exercise and healthy living programme would not only improve patients' quality of life, but also their life expectancy.

With grants from the British Heart Foundation and Stroke Association, the first group of heart patients went through the initial programme at Bournemouth in 1989.

"Some are still exercising with us, but I realised soon after starting that to ensure lifelong benefit, a proportion of people need long term support," said Dr Rozkovec.

The registered charity was started in 1991 and £500,000 raised in the community to open the Heart Club's premises.

Now 800 new patients and their partners are referred there every year and each month members clock up 2,000 attendances for supervised exercise sessions.

The second phase has cost £350,000, half of which was donated from the estate of the late Rosalie Heimann, a nurse who settled in Bournemouth after fleeing from Nazi Germany.

John Harding, chairman of the club, explained that members had to have been referred to the Royal Bournemouth for heart treatment.

"When people who have had by-passes or heart attacks start recovering, the hospital organises their rehabilitation programme. When that's finished, there's no further NHS provision. We pick up people from there."

Assistant secretary Jean Barton is herself a former heart patient. "We are extremely lucky to have this club," she said.

"In so many other places in the country, people who have had a heart attack or surgery are very well looked after in hospital, but when they are sent home, they have very often lost all confidence and are frightened to do things."

Mrs Barton had angina symptoms for only a week before she was told she needed a quadruple by-pass six years ago.

"It was a terrible shock. You never believe it will happen to you," she said.

"Here we have people who have all been through the same thing. It's a great moral support. We don't talk about our operations all the time, but if you have a niggling query, there's always somebody else who's had something similar."

As Baroness Cox told guests at the opening ceremony, the chances are that anyone who has had a heart attack or by-pass surgery will emerge from the club fitter than they were before.

"This is a place of hope, encouragement and new life for people after they have suffered a traumatic experience.

"It is a light in what is often a dark area of human experience and I hope many other parts of the country will be inspired to create similar facilities," she said.