Laura’s 500 Mile Cycle Raises £1000

Centre User Laura Cluxton has raised over £1000 for Forth Valley Sensory Centre. Laura's 500 Mile Cycle Challenge saw the Clacks based bicyclist ride the equivalent distance of her home to London in the space of three weeks.

You can see the original story and all the videos of Laura's epic journey below but the 500 Mile Cycle has been a real success.

Centre Fundraising Manager, Martin Allen commented: \"Laura has taken us all on an amazing journey with a video covering each of her rides. Sore legs never got in the way and Laura has covered each mile with amazing grace and humour. Thank you to Laura and everyone who donated to support this amazing effort.\"

Fellow Centre User Lawson Eades was inspired to write a perform a poem about the achievement of her friend Laura. You can listen to the poem on Soundcloud here.

Original Story and all videos:

Laura has been coming to the Centre for a long time, sitting on our Centre User Group and representing Centre Users on our main board. She is also an accomplished track cyclist, taking up the sport in earnest when she lost her sight in her 20's.

Laura's 500 Mile Cycle Challenge sees her using a 'turbo trainer' in her garage to complete various distances each day.

She told us:

"Since I stopped competing I've been looking for a good reason to get back on my bike. But I always need a goal or target to help motivate me. I thought this was the perfect plan, raise money for a great local charity and keep myself entertained during lockdown!"

As a charity which focuses very much on help and support for people with hearing or sight loss, the closure of the Centre at the end of March due to the Covid-19 crisis was a serious blow, not one for the charity but also Centre Users who look forward to their regular groups and classes.

The crisis has cost the Centre around £25,000 in revenue, a lot of money for a small charity but this has not stopped them working hard. All Centre Users are being contacted by phone or email to make sure they are ok and have the help they need.

Fundraising Manager, Martin Allen added:

"Sensory loss can be isolating under normal circumstances, with hearing loss leading to issues in social environments. Deaf people struggling to make themselves understood as few people speak BSL and those with sight loss, staying in through fear of falls or being attacked.

"The coronavirus pandemic has made this worse. Lip reading people in masks is impossible. Social distancing, keeping two meters apart is almost impossible when hearing aids have an effective one meter radius. And those with sight loss are not able to go and do their shopping as they need support. Robbing them of their independence.

"Laura's 500 Mile Cycle Challenge is a great idea to help raise funds so we can continue our support work at this time. Please do get behind her!"

You can add your donation for Laura on our funding platform Givey here.

You can find our more about what we do with your donations on our page here.

Day One:

https://youtu.be/_OBzMnmIaOo

Day Two:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b2_43rJNaW0

Day Three:

https://youtu.be/-CZJT12YIBw

Day Four:

https://youtu.be/Jj6I-dJV-gs

Day Five:

https://youtu.be/EIRo3edINPw

Day Six:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FiT-r1J73kk

Day Seven:

https://youtu.be/ugmPggq-O9c

Day Eight:

https://youtu.be/c4Y8HDoi734

Day Nine:

https://youtu.be/pZKsApIdnQU

Day Ten:

https://youtu.be/TKk7i73CBfc

Day Eleven:

https://youtu.be/jks47wvCUIY

Day Twelve:

https://youtu.be/H43D2MzjS3s

Day 13:

https://youtu.be/lldNtq6na2c

Day 14:

https://youtu.be/C8IM93h9yyY

Day 15:

https://youtu.be/D_jVLE1qKZ0

Day 16:

https://youtu.be/5rW2wcSBfXU