RESIDENTS in a Fernhill Heath care home will be getting out and about via bicycle rickshaw.
Fernhill House is running a series of fun fund-raising activities to buy the £6,500 trishaw, starting with a sweepstake to predict the winner of this year’s Strictly Come Dancing competition.
The idea of enabling residents to use pedal power to take to the nearby highways was mooted after staff read about a similar scheme in Denmark which has a fun and independent approach to retirement living.
That ‘Cycling without Age’ project has spread to 30 other countries. In total 1,500 trishaws are in use, some with elderly friendly features such as lifts, safety belts and specially designed blankets.
Home manager Peta Mandleberg said the home was about fun and living life to the full, epitomised by days out to the races, beaches and stately homes, along with drinks, barbecues and musical events.
“We’ve recently acquired an old fashioned ice cream bicycle and that gave us the idea that it would be fun for the residents to sit in the side car and be cycled around the grounds and the village – rather like Wallace and Gromit but with slightly less Wensleydale.”
The total raised will be matched by the home’s owners Majesticare.
