Cycling For All founder honoured
Glanmire man Mark O'Donoghue has been honoured as the Person of the Month for December. Mark has dedicated himself to providing people with disabilities the opportunity to experience the outdoors by involving them as cycling partners on his tandem bicycles.
Several years ago, he established the Cycling For All Cork as a means of giving back to society. Cycling For All Cork is a volunteer adaptive bike service, available to people who cannot cycle a bicycle by themselves. Mark and his team work on a volunteer basis.
Blind and vision impaired people, those with Parkinson's, Multiple Sclerosis, Downs Syndrome, balance issues, spinal cord injuries, paraplegics, quadriplegics and also those left with the after-effects of strokes, are some of the people they cater for.
Mark dreamt up the idea when he read an article about an Englishman named Dominic Gill, who cycled across America on a tandem bicycle, taking a number of different people with disabilities along with him on the various legs of the journey. “I thought this was absolutely fantastic,” Mark recalls. “I already owned a Thorn tandem bike, and, through my involvement with Irish Wheelchair Basketball, I knew some people with a variety of different disabilities. I began taking some of them out on the tandem from Blackrock to Passage, and I quickly discovered that there was a mushrooming demand out there.”
Mark soon found himself tandem cycling three times a day on a 20k round trip, two or three days every week. Having done this for a number of years, Tom English, a doctor contacted by one of Mark’s back seat riders, joined Mark as a volunteer pilot, and with Gerry Collins from Blackrock also on board as a pilot Mark now had three volunteer pilots, and three tandems. Since then it has gone from strength to strength.
What sets Cycling For All apart is the dedication to adapt bicycles to suit individuals with a wide range of disabilities. Mark collects and modifies these bikes, ensuring that they cater to the specific needs of their riders.
“I could have been disabled myself as I’ve acquired some serious injuries over the years including spending months in traction after an accident,” he said.
“Also one time my kneecap literally fell apart and I remember telling them up in the Orthopaedic Hospital that I would be cycling again by Christmas. The physio, in the next cubicle joked, that if I achieved that, she would buy me a bottle of champagne. I won the bet and that physiotherapist is now my wife,” he added.
Currently, there are 12 participating stokers from Cork city and county, as well as Kerry, with 8 tandem bikes. Thanks to a grant from Cork Sports Partnership and Cork City Council, they've added 2 recumbent tricycles and a hand-cycle. The council also provided a storage unit for the bikes. Mark not only facilitates cycling for people with disabilities but also teaches junior infants and children with dyspraxia and autism how to cycle. He says in the future they hope to acquire 2 or 3 more tandems, meet the increasing demand, and attract more volunteer pilots.