A few people have asked how the freebs of the kids project came about um and basically I was a uh it engineer for about 23 years and then my wife uh became a well through a neurological condition and um I became her uh her Cara um and then the bike project was
Something I could do obviously from home whilst being here uh to look after her but also to fill those gaps and those spaces in my time where um I needed something to occupy my mind um I was always into cycling and bikes since I was a
Kid and then when we had grandchildren I was looking at in charity shops and things for cheap bikes CU obviously our situation with being you know being a carer and having come out of uh my it job it was a cheap way to find bikes so I bought bikes for
Them from the charity shop and repaired them and I put some photos online and people were asking me have you got any more can you fix more old bikes up you know Christmas is coming we have’t got the budget for it we’re really struggling so I got a few more
From charity shops and did those and gave those to people uh it started at it was a Christmas time when I started doing it about five years ago and then I put the call out on Twitter just saying I think this might be something has
Anybody got a bike in the shed or the garage they don’t use anymore it’s broken or just outgrown or needs some TLC and since then bikes have just flooded in the bik have just continuously come in for the last five years at an incredible rate and I people’s generosity just just amazes me
Uh so we’re over 3,000 bikes now that I’ve repaired in The Last 5 Years and gifted for free uh they’re in Local Schools they’re in local charities they’ve gone to Ukrainian refugees they’ve gone to uh veterans they’ve gone to social worker referred families um Foster SAS all kinds of places um and bikes
Have also gone out to Uganda some are on their way now to Sierra Leone uh and it just it’s just never ending there’s such a huge need for it that um there’s always another Avenue for the project uh I’m still I’m still really enjoying it it’s it’s quite hard work
Sometimes on top of my other commitments I’m also a Granddad I’ve got three grandkids so um yeah keeps me busy but uh yeah just a bit of background there in into how it all started really