Biker mental health project set to raise £100k

A motorbike passport scheme that encourages riders to visit cafes is set to raise £100,000 for charity this year while helping improve mental health.

Bike and Brew was set up less than two years ago by Gloucestershire charity Make Your Mark, which stands for Motorbiker Acts of Random Kindness. Bikers pay £10 for the passport, which they get stamped when visiting any of the 300 cafes signed up this year.

Paul Sims, who founded Make your Mark, said numbers have tripled, with 10,000 bikers now taking part: "It is just incredible to see the reaction that it's had."

A major focus of the scheme is improving bikers' mental health by bringing like‑minded people together.

Sims added: "At the weekend I turned up at a garden centre and there were 15 burly Harley-Davidson riders all with their leathers on and backpacks, all stood like schoolboys holding their passports waiting to get it stamped.

"Last year in our first year Bike and Brew raised £33,000.

"This year we're cruising towards, optimistically, £100,000 and all of that will go out to support grassroots charities."

Dan Paget, who now volunteers with Make Your Mark, said he had suffered badly with his mental health but Bike and Brew had helped.

"You go to somewhere, you don't know anyone, but you've got something in common, which is amazing.

"So you're not just any biker, you're here for the Bike and Brew passport, and you can talk about it and just make new friends."

He said getting out on his bike to visit new places and meet new people "quietens the noise" of his anxiety.

"As soon as you put the helmet on, you know you've got a destination in the passport."

For many the scheme has forged new friendships and taken them to places they wouldn't have thought to visit.

Mo Shaikh and Kevin Sargeant from Birmingham, known as "Slo Mo" and "Quick Kevin" in the community, have struck up a friendship after meeting at a Bike and Brew cafe.

Shaikh said: "I've travelled all over country, to North Wales, Aberystwyth, down to the Cotswolds and next week we're going up to the Yorkshire Dales.

"I'm just discovering new roads, meeting new people, it's been fantastic."

Sargeant said: "We always used to go to the same sort of places, the same areas, but this has opened up so many different places now we can go to.

"We just choose a different one every week."

Izzie Childs and Harvey Mason, from Gloucester, said the passport had become a big part of their lives.

"You have the support, you have friendship so you're not alone," said Childs.

"That part means a lot to me, like having the friends and going out."

Mason said they had discovered places they would never normally visit.

"We always used to go to the same cafes over and over and it just got a bit boring.

"Then we found the event and we've been to places we didn't even know existed and that's what makes it so special because we get to see different places, meet different people we've not met before."

At the Silver Fox cafe in the Forest of Dean, breakfasts and hot drinks are served to riders arriving to get their stamp.

Owner Malcolm Ward said he was proud to be part of the scheme, which helped pay for a defibrillator outside the cafe.

"It's made a big impact on us," he said.

"Many people have come in and said if they hadn't joined Bike and Brew they would not have come in and found us.

"They always come in and say 'I'm glad we did because it's very quirky!'"

Sims said the growth of Bike and Brew had exceeded his expectations, with cafes regularly enquiring about joining future passports.

He hopes to expand the scheme into Scotland and the South East of England next year.

Its success, he said, lies in its impact.

"Although we're a mental health charity, we're never going to cure people but we can help them fulfil and live a better life through feeling valued and being listened to."

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