Donegal wheels out new inclusive cycling hub

The Variety Ireland charity has officially launched its new North West accessible cycling hub in Termon today. Based at the Craoibhín Community Centre, the new hub will feature a dedicated cycling track together with a carefully selected fleet of special mobility trikes and adapted cycles, designed to meet the needs of people with physical disabilities, learning disabilities, sensory impairments, and those who require additional support to cycle independently or with assistance. Named the Inclusion Cycling Hub, it will be operated by the Grassroutes organisation, who provide supervised cycling and training for people with additional and nonadditional needs. The initiative is being provided in collaboration with the HSE, The Department of Transport and The Department of Children, Disability and Equity and Donegal County Council. According to the charity, the dedicated cycling track at Craoibhín was the ideal location for their North West hub, as it provides a safe and controlled environment where users can develop confidence, improve their cycling skills, and enjoy being active without the challenges presented by busy roads or uneven terrain. "Special mobilty cycling is a thing that all the family can do," Kevin O'Brien from Variety Ireland told Donegal Daily at the launch of the hub. "It (allows for) inclusion, where families can come out and cycle with members of the family that have mobility issues." He says that research carried out by Royal College of Surgeons on behalf of the charity has shown massive benefits for all those who take part in inclusive cycling. "We work with the Royal College of Surgeons, and it improves both the mental and physical wellbeing of both the family and immediate family members by up to 90 percent," Kevin said. "So it's something that's really good for the family, they can all do something together, and it's inclusivity." The cycling hub in Donegal is the third established by the charity in Ireland this year alone, with further expansion plans also in place. "This is the third hub we've opened in Ireland alone this year, there will be other ones in Dublin, we just opened one in Mayo, there's other ones open in Louth, two in Dublin, one in Kerry and one in Cork," he said. "But our whole idea, our vision that we share with our partners in the HSE, the Department of Transport and the Department of Children is to have special inclusive cycling hubs across every county in Ireland in the next two years." Majella Orr is the Manager of the Craoibhín Community Centre, and she says that training will be provided for those with additional needs who wish to learn to cycle at the hub. "We have some fudning fromt he HSE which would go towards the classes, which we would hope to run in the Autumn time, and there's various options for funding. We'll probably do classes in blocks of six weeks, which will be a great opportunity for people who maybe haven't already had the opportunity to learn to cycle," she said. The equipment is available from the centre, and you can get in touch directly if you wish to try it out - however the training is essential before taking the adapted cycles out into public spaces. "If anybody out there wants to try out this equipment, they can get in touch with us here at the centre, either by calling out to the centre, or by phoning or emailing us," she said. "We do ask that people would come along here for training, as some of this equipment is very specialised, very big, and obviously we're talking about the most vulnerable in society so we do insist on some training before they would take it out into the public areas, but we would welcome anybody to come along and try out the equipment."