The Great Gloucestershire House LEJOG Cycle Challenge 2020

Gloucestershire House is a purpose-built care home in Cheltenham run by UK leading disability charity Leonard Cheshire, it is home to adults with physical disabilities and is a safe and friendly place to live, with high quality care and nursing. Gloucestershire House boasts a hydrotherapy pool, sensory room, therapy suite and activity room.

In early 2019 Gloucestershire House resident Dave Evans was advised that he should lose weight in order to access the hydrotherapy pool – he exceeded the safe weight limit for the pool hoist.
Thanks to support from the home’s physio team and a regime of using the site’s Therabikes (therapy bikes) Dave started to make progress with his weight loss target. A major turning point came for Dave when, in the summer of 2019 he was invited to attend the inclusive cycling sessions known as ‘Wheels for All’ hosted by Leonard Cheshire in the Forest of Dean. Dave recalled how he was hoisted onto a side-by-side ‘tandem’ bike and cycled with a wonderful volunteer named Carmen whom he described as “6 stone soaking wet” and how it made him feel to be on a pushbike for the first time in over 50 years. He started to feel the true pleasure of cycling, along with the physical and mental health benefits of exercise and regaining independence. When Dave posted a photo of himself on social media using the tandem, he had lost so much weight that his friends didn’t recognise him. By November 2019 he had lost the 20kg necessary to allow him to use the hydrotherapy pool and as he says: “I can’t get enough of it – I feel like I’ve got my life back”.

Dave felt that having the challenge and a proper goal to ‘get on his bike’ had been a great motivation to becoming healthier and, not only did he want to maintain his exercise regime, but he was keen that other residents in Gloucestershire House should experience the same opportunities to exercise and enjoy the same buzz of having achieved a motivational goal. He discussed his plans with occupational therapy staff and physio students and together they came up with this plan for Gloucestershire House residents to collectively cycle the 1,673km required to complete a route officially recognized as one used to complete the Land’s End to John O’Groats (LEJOG) challenge.

The idea rapidly gained momentum and 12 residents quickly committed to completing the route using Therabikes and Wheels for All sessions.  The challenge commenced 6^th January and by mid February some 500km have been achieved.

Spurred on by the idea, the team involved with the challenge have decided to develop the LEJOG theme further to benefit more of the residents and discussion groups and IT activities have been assembled around the route taken by the LEJOG participants and the progress they have made, researching and making a ‘virtual visit’ to the places they will have reached by the distance achieved.

So great is everyone's appreciation of the Wheels for All scheme and the Therabikes and the added impetus they have given to attitudes towards exercise in Gloucestershire House that the LEJOG Challenge participants wish to demonstrate support by fundraising for further inclusive cycling equipment. Of course, Wheels for All is available not just to Gloucestershire House residents, but to anybody in our community and offers a selection of adapted bikes and trikes to enable anyone who would otherwise be unable to cycle to enjoy cycling in safe off-road environments, including the beautiful Forest of Dean, Gloucester and Cheltenham. It offers an easy way for everyone to get together and enjoy the benefits of being on a bike, whatever their ability.

The ‘Great Gloucestershire House LEJOG Cycle Challenge Team’ comprises residents from Gloucestershire House and the support of staff and volunteers from Leonard Cheshire, around 25 of us in total. It is a wonderful team effort oozing enthusiasm.

The Challenge team would particularly like to thank several local businesses who have so generously supported with the production of bespoke T-shirts for the team including Tomcat SNI Ltd, Pure Creative 30, and Five Valley Signs & Labels.

We thank you for any support you can give to our challenge and to showing our appreciation through funding for the Wheels for All inclusive cycling scheme and towards the purchase of inclusive cycling equipment at Gloucestershire House.

Follow our progress by liking our Facebook page at: 

https://www.facebook.com/LeonardCheshireGloucestershire

*NB: Our cycle challenge commenced on 6th January and so of course many of our photos of our valiant team members were taken before lockdown and stringent social distancing measures were imposed. Please rest assured that our team have continued to participate with all safety measures in place :-)