AN AYRSHIRE cycling group which provide active opportunities and bike experiences to people with limited sight or sight loss, has thanked Specsavers Irvine for a kind donation of £1,000.
North Ayrshire Tandem Cycling, which allows participants to enjoy a fun, social way for local people to get active with weekly tandem bike rides, received the funding from the Rivergate Shopping Centre store to help run the sessions and support with bike maintenance costs.
The group, which was founded in 2023, has 11 tandem bikes in total and welcomes people with visual impairments to partner with a pilot rider to enjoy the rides every weekend.
The £1,000 donation from Specsavers will allow the club to service five of their tandem bikes which needed maintenance, as well as key equipment, such as new gears and saddle bags for riders.
According to founder Andrew Lannigan, who himself is visually impaired, the main aim of the club is to invite local people along to make friends, boost their mental and physical health and enjoy cycling together in a safe and welcoming environment.
Andrew adds: ‘When we established our club, I wanted to create a fun opportunity for people who may feel stuck in their home due to their impairment to get out, meet new people and become more active.
‘We now have over 27 members who regularly join us and it’s become a real community effort. We’re always looking for new members, whether that’s riders with visual impairments or fully sighted cyclists to be pilots on our tandem cycles.’
‘However, we do rely on funding to be able to run the group so we’re incredibly thankful to the team at Specsavers for this incredible donation. Their support is simply brilliant and everyone in the club was over the moon when they heard about it.’
Lynsay Dunlop, store director at Specsavers in Irvine, says: ‘We first met Andrew and the North Ayrshire Tandem Cycling team at the North Ayrshire 10k last year and their story was just incredible. It was so fantastic to see how vital their support has been to people in our local community.
‘We were absolutely more than happy to help them with this donation towards their tandem bikes. We hope that it enables them to invite even more members to get involved and stay active, regardless of if their sight is limited or not.’
To book an appointment or speak to a member of the team at Specsavers Irvine store, visit https://www.specsavers.co.uk/stores/irvine or call 01294 313 353.
