‘It’s nice to show our support and pull together at times like this.’
The words of Brad Mulhearn. He runs Re-Cycle York off Walmgate, which is giving away 162 bikes to NHS workers.
The shop, which sells refurbished bikes as well as repairing and servicing cycles in its workshop, has long shipped hundreds of bikes to countries in Africa at cost.
More recently Brad and the team wanted to do more to help people closer to home.
And when the coronavirus emergency struck, they decided to give away the bikes to NHS workers, as a way of saying thank you.
Show our appreciation
Brad told YorkMix that they’d earmarked 200 bikes for community causes in February, and had already given away 38.
“Then the coronavirus came around. And because we were allowed to continue trading we thought we do something good with the 162 bikes remaining and show our appreciation to the NHS,” he said.
Re-Cycle wanted to say “a massive thank you to all the NHS staff tackling Covid-19 on the front line”.
He added:
With public transport becoming limited, a lot of messages that we are getting from NHS staff are saying we need the bikes to get to and from work.
It’s nice to think that we are doing some sort of good and playing a part.
We’ve had a really good response to it. Even just well-wishing messages from people not even wanting a bike, saying ‘thumbs up to you’.
Brad started Re-Cycle York nearly ten years ago, and its gone from being a one-man business to a team of eight.
Cycle shops are among the essential retailers allowed to stay open during the crisis. “I’m thankful to the lads because they’re still coming into work and putting their own health at risk,” Brad said.
To find out more about the free bike scheme, check out the Re-Cycle York Facebook page.