A NEW health and wellbeing centre has opened up in Taunton and is welcoming people to come and try out what is on offer.

The Sangha House in Mitre House is run by Denise and Andy Spragg.

The couple have only just moved to Taunton after running a successful retreats business but have been wanting to run a centre for some time.

Andy said he wanted to open a centre fol- lowing his own personal health problems.

He said: “I started practising Buddhism and Tai Chi over 25 years ago after I had an operation to get rid of a tumour on my hip joint.

“I was quite young at the time and the experience was quite frightening and really shook me up.

“I started doing meditation and tai chi and holistic therapies and found it really beneficial and therapeutic.”

From his experience, Andy decided he wanted to bring the power of mindfulness to others and for over 10 years has been running successful retreats with his wife.

But they have been searching for the perfect place to bring all of their work under one roof and were delighted when the property in Taunton popped up.

Andy said he and Denise were enjoying their time in Taunton, and hoped they would be there for many years to come.

He added: “We’ve been touring all across Britain for the past few years looking for a building and getting the vibe of places and found this place in Taunton.

“It’s such a great venue and Taunton is lovely, we haven’t been here long but everyone we have met so far is so friendly.

“Society is becoming more and more stressful, and life is getting tougher, part of what we do is about reconnecting with ourselves and with other people.

“We want the Sangha House to be somewhere where people can come and make friendships. The core of what we do is mind- fulness and that means being aware of what is going on around us.

“There are many ways to practise mindful- ness and we try and bring these all together under one roof.”

The centre held a successful opening day on November 11 and activities on offer in- clude Tai Chi, Yoga, Mindfulness Meditation and Djembe Drumming.

For more information, visit www.thesanghahouse.co.uk or call 0800 0191 635