Residents to Ride in Rickshaws

By Michael Flaherty

SOON elderly residents of Murrurundi will be cycling around town in rickshaws thanks to a Danish initiative Cycling Without Age.

The movement began when Ole Kassow noticed an elderly man sitting outside a nursing home in his home town of Copenhagen and wondered if he’d like to go for a ride, so he hired a rickshaw and began taking residents for rides.

Sue Abbott was in England two years ago when she wanted to take her mother who has dementia cycling, while looking for a wheelchair bicycle on the internet she came across Cycling Without Age, one of the founders of the initiative Dorthe Pederson has come to Australia to expand Cycling Without Age.

“I was intrigued about Cycling Without Age and last October I received an invitation from the City of Sydney to attend a Cycling Without Age forum because Dorthe Pederson has come to Australia and was giving a presentation and shoeing us all about it and encouraging us to get on board,” Sue Abbott said.

“I thought how wonderful that would be to have in the Upper Hunter and I started to plot how we might be able to that,” she said.

Ms Abbott’s idea gained unstoppable momentum when an anonymous benefactor agreed to fund the purchase of two, three-wheel, electric powered rickshaws at a cost of $12,000 each.

Ms Abbott spoke to the manager of the Murravale Aged Care facility in Murrurundi, Jo Bailey, who eagerly jumped onboard with the idea.

“I contacted Dorthe to come up to Scone and give a presentation to Jo Bailey, her team and a few other people who were interested

Dorthe Pedersen (Centre) came to Scone to give a Cycling Without Age presentation.

perhaps down the track for Strathearn and maybe down the track for other nursing homes in the upper hunter,” said Ms Abbott.

“It can basically build bridges between older generations and younger generations within families and provides the chance to ride bicycles in a very safe way with the wind in your face and perhaps in your hair,” she said.

“It has become quite common among the male relatives of people in nursing homes who after they say how are you going mum, don’t really know what else to say, have loved saying well why don’t we go and have a coffee and have a bicycle ride.

“It’s just a bridge between all the different aspects of the community,” Sue Abbott said.

Volunteers are being sought in Murrurundi to be pilots for the rickshaws which are expected to arrive in May, with training to be completed in time for the maiden voyage in July.

If you’d like to be involved with the project contact Murravale Retirement Home on 02 6546 6668.