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Elderly trike riders need volunteer 'pilots'

Martin EastaughWallingford
News imageBBC Two specially adapted trikes are being cycled, side-by-side, along a street. The trikes have two wheels at the front, wide enough apart to carry a passenger. They are powered and steered by women on the back, each wearing pink hi-viz vests. The passenger in the front of the trike on the left is an elderly man wearing a blue shirt and green baggy sun hat. He is holding a squeezy horn in the air. The passenger in the trike on the right is an elderly man wearing a tan cap - he is sat in a wheelchair which is mounted on the trike. He is smiling and waving.BBC
Cycling Without Age Oxfordshire has gone from two to nine trikes in just 10 months

A charity is appealing for volunteers to help its "unbelievably rewarding" work taking older and vulnerable people out for rides in specially adapted trishaws.

Cycling Without Age is an international charity with branches across the UK, which aims to bring joy to elderly people who, otherwise, would not get the opportunity to go for a ride.

The Oxfordshire branch has gone from having two trikes to nine in just ten months.

Leader of Cycling Without Age's Wallingford hub, Mick Heath said: "There are still a lot of black spaces where people need to get out and we need to get more volunteers, more money, more trikes, more rubber on the road".

The Cycling Without Age Oxfordshire group has gone from two to nine trikes in just 10 months

One of the volunteer cyclists - known as "pilots" - Elaine Shepherd said: "It's unbelievably rewarding to take somebody out".

"They're in a care home, they can't get out so easily, they don't have a driving license, catching a bus isn't really an option... and we enable that.

"They can feel the wind in their hair - so they can be out in the fresh air, whatever the weather".

Victoria McWade recently became a volunteer after her father moved into a care home in Wallingford.

"It's just the most incredible thing ... to be able to bring him out of the care home and take him out into the countryside, to see the birds, to see the butterflies.

"It's just the freedom that we both love so much," she said.

News imageTwo adapted trikes are being cycled away from the viewer along a path which is winding through a field of flowers and young trees. In the distance are some houses. The trikes are much longer than a normal bicycle and large enough on the front to accomodate a wheelchair.
The charity's motto is "the right to feel the wind in your hair".

Mick Heath said: "This is, by a country mile, the most rewarding thing I've done in my life. The impact it has on people's wellbeing is massive".

"We've grown very rapidly. From Oxford having two very quiet trikes in October 2025, we've now got nine busy trikes. We're continuing to grow fairly rapidly, in a controlled way".

"We need money to buy the trikes and volunteers to pedal them. Putting those two things together we can give everybody in Oxfordshire the right to feel the wind in their hair," he added.

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