WCHG roofers rescue charity tandem
Two Wythenshawe roofers recently reunited an expensive tandem bicycle, with a charity that supports people with disabilities to help experience the countryside.
The tandem was one four stolen from the award-winning Wakefield based charity Open Country, more than three years ago.
Dennis Bowers, a Roofer for Wythenshawe Community Housing Group (WCHG) for the last 20 years, said: “I’ve always been interested in bikes and one morning I got a message from a colleague telling me he’d seen a bike, apparently abandoned, on Hollyhedge Road in Wythenshawe.
“So, I went to take a look and to my surprise I found a tandem left unlocked next to a lamppost. It was in pretty good condition, with just one pedal missing, and I knew straight away that the right thing to do was to look after it until I could find the rightful owners.
“I rang a few contacts, to see if anyone had heard of a tandem going missing, but drew a blank. Then, with the help of a colleague, we started the process of trying to find the owners on the internet.
“There’s quite a lot of databases and registers for stolen bikes and naturally we started by looking at the most recent results. We kept trawling through them, going back further and further, and it was more than three weeks before we finally found the owners, Open County, who had reported their four tandems missing more than three years ago!”
Ella Dixon, Wild about Wakefield project officer for Open Country, said: ‘’We’re so grateful to Dennis and his colleague, our Wythenshawe heroes, for not only finding the tandem but also going to so much effort to track us down.
"After such a long time we really didn’t expect to see it again. Our members and volunteers will be back pedalling on the lucky tandem during this year’s season.”
The tandem clubs run by Open Country empower people living with disabilities to access the open countryside, whilst at the same time taking care of their health and wellbeing. The clubs are also a chance to socialise and make friends, which in turn helps reduce isolation.
Paul Butterworth, Executive Director of Assets at WCHG in Manchester said: “We couldn’t be prouder of our colleagues. They’ve really gone out of their way to do the right thing and as a result people with disabilities will once again be able to enjoy the countryside and make friends. They’re an absolute credit to Wythenshawe and WCHG.”
