From April 2025 we are launching the SWELL project - Supporting Wellness and Empowering Lives Locally.

Thanks to the support of The National Lottery, we will once again be offering a free massage and physiotherapy service, and free community exercise classes all year !

To learn more about the massage and physio, find out if you are eligible, and book a treatment, CLICK HERE

To find out more about Yoga4Health, Exercise4Ease and Zumba4Life, and book a class, CLICK HERE


We’ve come a long way to get here…

Our story begins in 2010, with two massage therapists who wanted to share their skills with anyone and everyone who needed them. They were inspired by people they met in the refugee ‘Jungle’ of Calais – people who had taken incredible risks to seek safety in the UK, and whose journeys were far from over. 

The therapists knew that things would not be easy for these people in the UK, and decided to do what they could to be there for those that landed up in Leeds, to help them recover from their ordeals. They began by volunteering massage for PAFRAS, a pioneering charity that supports refugees and asylum seekers. They also volunteered for OPAL, a Leeds-based charity that supports older people to remain independent. Seeing the benefit of what they were doing, they began the process of registering a Community Interest Company, and in 2013 were finally eligible for the financial support required to grow. Over the next few years they ran projects with Touchstone, Hamara Women’s Centre, Behno and Leeds Teaching Hospitals, and built up their networks. 

In 2017, with a thriving team of therapists, In Touch delivered the PEACH project, with the new social prescribing body Connect Well, to provide a range of holistic therapies for people on low income in LS7 and LS8. They set up a treatment room at St Martin’s Medical Practice and began to enter the medical world. All was going so well… until a global pandemic came along and interrupted it all!

Massage was not a safe practice during the Covid years. People’s lives changed a lot. The In Touch team all but disappeared, and the company nearly had to close its doors forever. But a little spark of energy remained, and that energy grew, until a new directorship formed and brought us back into being – and here we are, refreshed and revived, serving the community we love once more!

In 2023 we ran the Personal Empowerment Project (PEP), funded by The National Lottery HATCH Local Care Partnership.

The aim of PEP was to help people out of pain and into a place of health. We believe that knowledge is power, and by helping people understand their bodies, we empower them to maintain their own good health. With plenty of guidance and support. By providing group exercise classes for local adults and asylum seekers, we will built bridges across communities and promoted support, friendship and togetherness. We piloted our exercises and provided free massage therapy for local people on low income, older people and asylum seekers. 

In 2024 we continued the exercise classes due to pressure from our students and our steering group, surviving on a shoe-strong, and a little support from Hamara and HATCH LCP. We were forced to suspend the free massage services until 2025, when we finally received the backing we need to support health and wellbeing in the community with a full range of services once more.