Dedicated staff at Ferrars Hall Care Home in Huntingdon have helped keen cyclist Jean achieve her dream this week. As part of the care home’s ‘Make a Wish’ initiative, residents were given the opportunity to tell staff about somewhere they had always wanted to go or a special activity they had always wanted to do.
Eighty-five-year-old Jean Chambers had a specific wish, to see a Dawse racing bike again. Jean had the fastest legs in the Edinburgh road club back in the 1950's on her original Dawse bike and was keen to get on a bike again. Originally from Edinburgh, Jean was one of seven children and taught herself to ride a bike as a child and cycling quickly became a life-long passion.
The team of Well-being coordinators at Ferrars Hall pulled together to make her wish happen. They phoned lots of local bike stores before speaking to Mark Abbott of Richardson Cycles in St Ives who was happy to arrange for Ferrars Hall Care Home to borrow a Dawse racing bike for the day. “The smile on Jean's face when she was able to get on the bike was just priceless” said Home Manager Susan Dunnell. “We’d like to thank Richardson Cycles for helping us to make this happen, it was wonderful to see Jean today, clearly she was still as keen as ever to cycle.”
Jean was eager to tell staff how she loved to cycle and feel the fresh air blowing in her face and the wind in her hair. She had lots of stories about biking to work every day in Edinburgh City Centre. She recalled how she was once stopped by the police “I was stopped by a Bobby on point duty, he blew his whistle and put his hand up and stopped me, I thought I’d done something wrong. But he said there was a young lad behind me who couldn’t catch me up, I was too fast for him!”.
“Our Make a Wish initiative has been a fantastic way for us to learn more about our residents. The stories that come out are fascinating to hear and we wouldn’t have heard about them had it not been for the Make a Wish project” said Customer Relations Manager Hannah Mills “We’ve fulfilled a huge range of wishes from off-road driving experiences to afternoon tea and now cycling!”.
For more information about Ferrars Hall Care Home in Huntingdon please contact Customer Relations Manager, Hannah Mills on 07568 128215 or email hannah.mills@countrycourtcare.com.
