When I left school, I followed a conventional route through Nottingham University and the Law College at Guildford into a career in the law as a solicitor. I had always been active but when a minor health issue led me to cycling to improve my fitness, I did not anticipate where, years later, it would lead me. I retired from legal practise in October 2017. I needed a new challenge and most of all I needed a new routine – in all honesty I had not considered either the positive human aspects of my working environment. The everyday contact with my brilliant workmates. The chit-chat or banter which welded us together. I felt quite lonely and retreated into myself. I went through a phase of trying to avoid human contact, cycling alone. A good friend suggested I might volunteer with a Charity he knew of where he had not only donated old family bikes but bought them too. I had always serviced my own and my family’s bikes but thought a proper “qualification” might be a useful thing to add to my CV before presenting myself as a potential volunteer. I went on a two-week course to get Cytech 2 certified – it’s a pretty basic cycle mechanic’s training designed to give the cycle industry a recognised skills standard. I did some research on the target Charity and presented myself to find out how (or “if”) I might be useful to them in their operations.

The Charity is “Re-Cycle (Bikes to Africa)”. From my first visit to the warehouse and workshop in Wormingford, I was amazed by the scope of the challenge the small group of full-time employees and their volunteer supporters had to meet. The extraordinary truth is that every donated bike is valued, if only for spare parts or for scrap metal! Every penny raised from the sale of refurbished bikes which are still attractive enough to the more sophisticated UK market helps meet the primary objective of sending bikes to partner charities in Africa (currently to Ghana, South Africa, Zambia, The Gambia, Sierra Leone and Malawi) and supporting their efforts to distribute and maintain bikes which are life changing for individuals and communities there who have so little. Quite often helping children get to schools, farmers get supplies in/crops to market or simply maintaining social or familial ties becomes possible with the speed of travel by bike – when the only other alternative is to walk.

Re-Cycle does good work – to find out more, visit the website and check out the most recently published Impact Report. Its impact is also personal. The variety of the volunteers’ different life experiences is striking. Wherever they come from and whatever their back-story each is valued for who they are and the contribution they make. My involvement there gives me purpose, teaches me new skills and makes me feel part of something worthwhile.

Written by Richard Harris (OI 1966 - 76)