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"We didn't have very much growing up," Nick Priestly tells me,聽"and I didn't want my children to ever feel that. That what motivates me - I can't let them down."

For Nick, 35, the past two years have been horrendous, full of worry and heartbreak.

To keep his gym afloat, the dad-of-three had to scale back his business during COVID-19 lockdowns.

He was working 80 hours a week, trying to make ends meet.

Then, last year, he nearly lost his wife, Nicola, and newborn baby girl, Daisy, after a traumatic birth.

"It's just been one thing after another," he explains, sitting in his Wigan gym, "and then eventually we get to a point where we think 'okay, we're just getting there now'.

"I was thinking, 'finally, I'll start actually paying myself a wage, maybe have some holidays', rather than working 70, 80 hours a week.

"But now I'm thinking, 'well I'm going to have to do all that again' just to pay the bills."

Nick describes his family as "pretty humble" with outgoings that are already at a bare minimum.

"We have a nice little terraced house, we don't live beyond our means, we've already sold one of our two cars, we don't go out very much, don't really drink, and even we are like 'what can we cut back on here?'"

Rising energy prices hit Nick on multiple fronts - at his home, his work and of course on his clients' pockets.

He says he would expect customers to cut back on trips to the gym and personal training as the rising cost of living starts to hit more broadly.

And like many who are self-employed, he feels the pressure is all on him to make this work.

"There's me," he says, "I've not really got anyone behind me. If this all goes wrong, I haven't really got anyone to go to. And, of course, I want to make it work for my family."

"I'm doing everything I can. But even I am like, "What else can I do?

"There is nothing. When your food bills and just climbing and climbing, and your house bills are climbing and climbing, how much more can you cut back? And what more work can you do?"

Rising bills crippling small firms

For many of Wigan's small businesses, rising bills are crippling especially after two years of uncertainty and disruption during the COVID-19 pandemic.

But Robert Downes, from the Federation of Small Businesses, says the cost-of-living crisis may end up being "a bigger shock" to firms "than the pandemic".

"During COVID, businesses had additional financial support from the government," Mr Downes told us.

"If we see prices rocket again come October, there's a real danger that for many firms they are going to go under."

And it's not just profits and balance sheets that suffer of course.

It's people, it's families and futures.

Read more:
'I don't know what more I can do'
The cost of living: Kay Burley's road back to Wigan Pier

And that's what keeps Nick Priestly going, every hour of the day.

"I never want my children to feel embarrassed about the clothes they are wearing or stuff, you know, or be laughed because they haven't got something.

"Building a better life for them, that's what keeps me going."

Watch Kay Burley in Wigan between 7am and 10am Monday to Thursday on Sky News