Cycling Without Age future secured after League of Friends step in to provide finance in Portsmouth
A local charity scheme is celebrating after securing funding for the next three years having come close to folding.
Cycling Without Age Portsmouth and Hayling Island, run by The You Trust, has seen its future secured after receiving funding from a local group. The scheme, which helps vulnerable people get out into the community, had previously announced it needed to raise £25,000 by the end of June to avoid closing.
The League of Friends of St Mary’s Portsmouth Hospital (LOF) have gone beyond that that, providing £49,500 to fund the next three years of the service. Members of The You Trust, Cycling Without Age, and LOF, celebrated the arrangement at St Mary’s Community Health Campus on Wednesday, July 24.
The You Trust launched Cycling Without Age in Portsmouth and Hayling Island in 2019 with it then returning in 2021 after breaking during covid. The scheme is a global movement which all started in 2012 in Copenhagen when Ole Kassow started taking nursing home residents on cycling trips around the city. Nursing staff saw a profound change in the residents with the concept then spreading to over 50 countries.
Karen Hobbs, community services and business development manager for The You Trust, was delighted to have seen the schemes future ensured in the region. Outlining the future plans, she said: “The money is going to help pay for our coordinator, without which we would not be able to run the service. The coordinator helps organise the volunteers and their training.
“The volunteers pilots are also vital and we need more of them as the demand has gone up since we released the appeal. We want to continue providing the service we do but we want it to reach more people and take more people out. We want to make the service bigger and better and to get clearer processes in place as to how people can be referred to us. I think it is going to be really successful.
“I’d like to do more chapters, the Isle of Wight is very keen to get involved, as well as the New Forest and Southampton. I am very keen to expand the service. The focus is to get it right in Portsmouth and Hayling Island first.”
Jenni Van Wijk, volunteer coordinator for Cycling Without Age, spoke of how appreciative they were of the support from the public since announcing its financial struggles. She said: “We were blown away by all of the support that we received, and all of the people coming together offering solutions, suggestions and introductions. One of which was from one of our pilots Adrian Saunders, who introduced us to the League of Friends of St Mary’s Hospital.
“They have given us a large amount of money which is going to help us become more sustainable over the next three years. We are very excited and it is great to have a chance to celebrate today.”
The League of Friends have been providing support to St Mary’s Hospital since 1949, but with demand waning at the site they were on the look out for other opportunities to help the community.
Jonathan Kemp, chairman of the LOF, explained why they chose to step in to keep the service running. He said: “We have been around for more than 70 years, helping the staff, the patients, and funding of equipment. We have less demand here at the hospital now as it is no longer a hospital. We were approached by the You Trust, who run this fantastic scheme, and we are delighted to be giving them some funding that will keep it going for the next three years.
“This is a vital service. It gets people who may be housebound, or have limited mobility, out and about and into the beautiful sunshine and all weathers. They interact with the local environment, with the pilot, their carers and other people in society. What you are doing is getting people out and about to build relationships or even just a simple interaction for one hour a day.
“It gives them a chance to get out into the city and see things they have not seen for a long time, or maybe never have, they can stop and have a tea or coffee, and it helps build a much more resilient social community.”
Further information on the scheme can be found on The You Trust website, including a self-referral form if you believe yourself, or someone you know, would benefit from Cycling Without Age.