Cycling Without Age Portsmouth and Hayling Island is currently fundraising as it looks to secure a sustainable long term future.
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00:00Hi, my name's Jenny and I'm the volunteer coordinator for Cycling Without Age which
00:06is run and managed by the U-Trust and we have a chapter for Portsmouth and
00:12Hayling Island and Cycling Without Age is actually a global movement which
00:16started in Copenhagen in 2012 and has now just gone into about 39 countries, I
00:24think last count, around the world and then in multiple towns and cities across
00:28those countries so it's a real amazing global movement and I coordinate the
00:33Portsmouth and Hayling Island chapter. Amazing, what's the principle behind it, what is it you do, the service rides?
00:40So we take people out on our lovely trikes who would otherwise be socially
00:46isolated, lonely, have limited mobility, we do taster rides at events so that people can see
00:52that we're going to be there and then they'll come along and then they'll go
00:55out for a ride and we also do individual rides where people might be referred by
01:01their social prescriber or they might have left hospital and their
01:06practitioner might be concerned about their well-being, they might be lonely and
01:10stuck at home but the original roots of Cycling Without Age when it started in
01:16Copenhagen is very much about accessing the elderly, people who
01:21can't ride their bikes anymore because they've got limited mobility and it
01:27started by them going to nursing home and taking some people out on the
01:32trikes and afterwards the manager of the nursing home kind of contacted Ole
01:38Casso who's the founder of Cycling Without Age and said what have you done to our
01:41residents, they've changed, it was such an instant mood booster so yeah we take
01:47people out for rides and it really is like this ripple effect in their
01:51well-being, they might start off a bit down, a bit unhappy, not really full of energy
01:58and then they go out on the ride and just feeling the wind in their hair and
02:02connecting with the community, seeing nature, seeing passers-by and waving to
02:07them and connecting with them so it's a real way of getting people out of their
02:10homes and reconnecting with their community and then also you've
02:15got the added element of storytelling with the pilot that is riding the bicycle, that's what we call them, they're volunteer pilots and yeah it's just a really lovely way of bringing a boost to individuals and groups in the community.
02:32Is it under a bit of a threat at the moment in terms of finances?
02:35It is yeah, so Cycling Without Age has been funded to date by short-term grants and that is
02:43running, is running out basically and we've got till the end of June where we
02:49need to raise, or have pledged in £25,000 to keep the service running for
02:55the rest of the next year really so we're working really closely with the
03:02senior management of the U Trust and the business development managers and
03:07other team members who are interested in helping save the service and
03:13helping to bring more funding to the U Trust as well so yes it's all hands on
03:19deck and the community and the response that we've had from people who've heard
03:23that the service is at risk has just been amazing. Deb's one of our pilots, she
03:28offered to run a fundraiser which is why we're here today.
03:32My name's Debbie and I'm a pilot for Cycling Without Age.
03:36So how long have you been doing that?
03:38Since the very beginning, which is probably about four years now.
03:42But we had two years with Covid.
03:44And do you enjoy it?
03:46It's wonderful, love it.
03:48Obviously kind of taking people out, have you got any regular customers at all?
03:52People that you take out?
03:54Yeah, we've got one lady that we take out regularly, she'd go out every day if she could I think.
03:59She likes to go up to the graveyards so she can tend to her husband and her son's grave.
04:05So she's got a lot of gardening things that she brings with her, pot plants and things.
04:09We pick her up at her house, we put her walking frame next to her on the seat.
04:14Then we bring in her bag with all of her shears and her sponge and her soapy water.
04:19Watering can and secateurs, all piles onto the trike.
04:23Go up to the graveyard to help tend the grave, water everything.
04:27And then she goes off down to the fish market.
04:29So we take her down to the fish market, she goes in and buys her fish.
04:33And then we take her back home.
04:35So we're out for a couple of hours.
04:37Yeah, quite rewarding then in that respect.
04:39She couldn't go on her own, she can't walk far enough to the bus stop.
04:43Even with the walker, it's too far for her to walk.
04:46So with the trike it's perfect to pick her up right at her house.
04:49Yeah, perfect, great.
04:51And I understand you've also got an event as well, a fundraising event that you're arranging next week.
04:55Yep, this is part one, the Taste of Rice today.
04:58And next week we've got on the beach there, our Sugary Bites, is our swim group.
05:03And we've got 170 of us in that group.
05:06And we're having a swim party, fancy dress and fancy dress hat.
05:11So you can either put the full hog with the whole fancy dress outfit or just wear a hat.
05:15And there's a competition.
05:17And then we do the Hokey Cokey after we've had our swim.
05:20We do the Hokey Cokey in the water and then out.
05:22And then we'll do a bit of a sea shanty with my exercise version of what should we do with Drunken Sailor.
05:30And that will warm us up, because I'm an exercise instructor as well.
05:33Okay, and this is Sugary Bites, that's a group that you've set up yourself, wasn't it?
05:37It is, yeah. We set that up just around the Covid time,
05:40just so people wouldn't be swimming in the winter on their own.
05:43So I'm Karen Hobbs, the Community Services and Business Development Manager for the U-Trust.
05:48And I manage the personalised care team for the Portsmouth South Coast Primary Care Network,
05:53cycling without age, and I also help with the business development for the U-Trust.
05:59I understand you kind of played a role in reintroducing cycling without age after Covid as well.
06:04Yeah, so the U-Trust was really keen for cycling without age to continue.
06:08So once it had been in storage for a couple of years, when I joined in October 21,
06:12I relaunched it, the Pyramids, and we had a big event and we got the pilots retrained
06:19and we got the trikes out on the road.
06:21Nice, nice. And how important do you think it is to the community and to Portsmouth?
06:25Oh my God, the service is amazing. Just in four months last year, we took 300 people out
06:30and those 300 people were isolated and lonely, not accessing any services in the community,
06:35really struggling. So actually a ride in the fresh air, talking to the pilot, making friends,
06:42was just really amazing and really helped those people.
06:46We've now got people that have used that ride now accessing different groups,
06:52going to different organisations, made friends on the trike.
06:56So it's just been really instrumental in getting people out.
07:00And I think also it takes the pressure off other organisations and the GP as well.
07:05So those people that go to their GPs because they're lonely and isolated,
07:09actually if they can access services like ours, then it really helps to take the pressure off the NHS as well.
07:14Amazing. And obviously we're here today to do a bit of fundraising.
07:20How real is the threat? How at risk is the service?
07:23So the U Trust is really keen for Cycling Without Age to continue.
07:27We've been really humbled so far in actually how many people have come forward and donated
07:32because they just see the importance of the service.
07:35We have until the end of June and we need to raise some money for it to continue.
07:39And we want it now, on the back of the success last year, we want it to continue and get bigger and better.
07:46And I think actually if we can have some long-term investment, it can be much more sustainable.
07:50We can plan more, we can be more proactive and we can target more services.
07:55So it would be wonderful if we could get any local businesses to sponsor and involve and link and partner.
08:03And it would be lovely if we could get them their branding, logos.
08:09We could have them on our virtual sponsorship wall on the U Trust.
08:13It would just be wonderful and I think then they can see the benefits and their social values as well.
08:18We couldn't do the service without the trained pilots.
08:21The pilots are the volunteers, are instrumental in this and I don't think we could have run the service without it.
08:26With Jenny's expertise and planning, the service has just exploded.
08:32And I think because of that, that's why we're so keen to get this service to continue in Portsmouth and Hayley Island.
08:39Because it benefits so many people.
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