The act of riding a bike sometimes brings back vivid memories of childhood. Perhaps a bike was part of your earliest times venturing out seemingly alone.
As a teenager, as many others did, I earned my Duke of Edinburgh’s Award, and part of this saw a summer cycling and recording loops around Carn Brea in Co
rnwall to gain a ‘physical’ element of the award. No GPS, fancy gadgets or even cycle helmets in those days – it was all recorded on paper perhaps with the help of a 1980’s Casio f91.
I was recently again reminded of teenaged years when some kind soul posted a picture of me at that embarrassing age.
We were fortunate in Camborne to have a local youth club attached the local Methodist Church. At this point I have to applaud the patience and dedication of Angela and Bill Herring and Cheryl Wills among others. Also in Lanner our musical offerings and teenaged queries were entertained by members of the local Church; thank you to the Langfords, the Halls, the Pearces and others.
The experiences in and around those youth groups added elements to my worldview at the time. Biology and chemistry aside, the ideas and ‘stuff’ experienced in my teenaged years have challenged, informed and been a comfort in later years. OK it was only part of the rich experiment that is growing up, but there’s wisdom in SOME of them-there old truths.
I have to say the human ‘being there’, the kindness and the giving is one of the enduring memories!
Which brings me to what’s there for the current young people on our community.
In syston, it’s been reported that “there is a complete lack of places for young people in the evenings”.
Syston Methodist Church is working, alongside others, for transformed lives & community in Syston. This Pilgrimage is to raise money to turn part of our buildings into a Community Hub, the first goal for the Community Hub is to be used as a Youth Cafe. The need in Syston is huge as there is a complete lack of places for young people in the evenings. They have some grants and are looking for more. However, they are still short of quite a few thousand pounds. Every donation will take it closer to their goal of providing a fantastic new resource for our community.
If you’ve ever valued any element of support from a group such as the above I wonder could you spare £1 or 2? I’m not as young as I was and 160+ miles is a long way to pedal a bike!
I’m hoping all of the past members of Camborne Wesley MAYC and Lanner ‘New Life’ might look back in fondness and send me a £1 – right guys?
Happy daze!
…only 3 years …and 9000+ miles, and a lot’s changed.
The bike’s pretty much as it was 
I do not use major city roads so am not ideally placed to comment but in my subjective experience about 1 in 5 do pass too close when passing people on bikes. 1 in 10 pass very dangerously close. I film all the 7miles x 2 commutes I do ever weekday – I’ll check when I have time! But 1 in 10 is too many! Fine for fit, strong, attentive ‘cyclists’ but for the average person in the street that could pop to the shops on their bike, the traffic is not acceptable. Forget getting the kids cycling!
Jules P Richards 