Push Bike Paul

We’re delighted to be able to share Paul’s story; highlighting the benefits of donating an old bike, rather than throwing away… please have a read!
“From being a child I have always been interested in bikes and how they work and was often ‘rescuing’ old bikes to renovate, needs must in those days, you couldn’t afford to buy new! The challenge remains to restore any unwanted, no longer loved bikes and give them a new home.
The scheme started about 2 years ago when I was helping a neighbour, Margaret Gregory, with a few bike projects, to raise money for her local church. We then went on to raise funds for Treetops Hospice Care, where my wife and I are volunteers. The scheme grew quite rapidly and we now have a great team of volunteers, which keeps it running. My wife Pauline has been a volunteer at Treetops for 11 years and she helps with the admin, which can be pretty time consuming and the quantity of donations now mean that we regularly carry out collections in the Treetops minibus, which Pauline is authorised to drive. Margaret is now dealing with most of the sales, which are done via Facebook Marketplace, no mean feat for a lady well into her 70s – she is often dealing with sales, cleaning bikes etc. late into the evening and early morning! She has just erected a gazebo – with lighting – in her garden, so she can work during the dark nights! Another neighbour of ours, David, is helping with the refurbishment, he is a fount of knowledge and has been a great asset. We receive a whole range of donations, some of which we thought were scrap, have turned out to be collectable (very!) and through that we have met some other great members of the team. Sam deals with the more specialised bikes, often stripping them down to sell the parts on ebay and has so far raised approaching £5000. We have received some extremely generous donations of bikes which were almost brand new, one in particular springs to mind, a Pashley trike, which was purchased by someone in Cornwall – that was an interesting project to pack and send, thankfully it arrived, safely, to a very happy customer.
We have so far raised over £25000 for Treetops but have also been raising funds for Long Eaton Rotary to support other local charities, which include the Air Ambulance, Guide Dogs for the Blind, etc. We were proud to donate £400 to ‘Long Eaton – Scrubbing for the NHS’ who were a local group, including several of our neighbours, who worked tirelessly, making much needed scrubs, during the early lockdown. Another £500 went to the local Food Bank.
Fortunately during lockdown, the sale of bikes was one of the businesses encouraged and we were able to continue and flourish during that time, we often collect in excess of 20 bikes when out in the minibus. Some of the bikes need far too much work for either myself or David to tackle and we are very fortunate to have Jeff, round the corner, who will buy several at a time to renovate himself. Nothing goes to waste, parts are stripped and saved if necessary and any remnants weighed in for scrap. Jeff has recently had a customer who is a personal trainer and he is now a repeat customer buying several bikes at a time for his clients.
We have met some really lovely people on our travels and heard some fascinating stories and being able to spread the word about local charities is a bonus. People are happy to donate their bikes if they know they are going to a good cause and will find a happy new owner.
ReCYCLING as it should be!”
(written by Pauline – Paul’s wife)
If you have an old bike or are looking to buy, then don’t hesitate to contact Paul via email.
Additionally, if you’d like to donate to the Trust’s ‘Fiver for Wyver’ campaign then do so below