THE recently formed Cycling Without Age West Devon and East Cornwall branch held its launch event and ‘Race Night’ on Saturday, January 18, at Launceston Golf Club.

Director Lynn Roddy said: “We raised just under £1,000 through the Race Night and are well on the way to being able to order our first trishaw for the community. A big thank you to all who attended this enjoyable evening and were so generous in their support. A thanks to Launceston Golf Club who also gave a contribution on the night to the charity.”

Thanks were also expressed to David Corney for his generous personal donation of £1,000 and for the £5,000 presented by the WE Dunn Trust.

Cycling Without Age volunteer pilots take local elders and care/nursing home residents out on ‘trishaw’ cycle rides to feel the wind in their hair. These special trishaws are three-wheel cycles with a passenger cab out front, they have electrical power assist, so there is no need to be ‘super-sporty’ to be a volunteer cycle pilot.

The trishaws enable people to experience the city and nature close-up. There’s opportunity to regain social connection and for people to tell their story in the environment where they have lived their lives. The cycle pilots and passengers alike enjoy the physical and emotional well-being benefits. The joy of riding in the trishaw cab stimulates spirits to fly and stories to flow.

Cycling Without Age is a non-profit global initiative, founded in Copenhagen in 2012 and has now spread worldwide. Each local chapter is run by volunteers with our guiding principles of generosity, slowness, storytelling, relationships and without age.

The idea for a branch formed at about the same time in Tavistock and Launceston. Adam Corney said: “We have a core of committed cyclists and community minded people in our areas and their love of cycling can be coupled with individual goodwill to create a resource to improve the lives of older and disadvantaged people near us. This pool will allow us to train a team of ‘pilots’ and supporters to operate the rides safely and enjoyably. Safety, security and safeguarding will be at the core of what we do.”

He added: “We have decided to pool our resources to avoid duplication on organisation and admin. There will however, still be a trike for each town. We are now registered with the Charity Commission as a Charitable Incorporated Organisation [CIO]. This allows us to put in place ‘best practice’ governance to manage the project for the long term. We have formed a committee of five trustees to steer the work as we develop, consisting of an accountant, lawyer, business persons and cyclists with experience of nursing homes.”