The Project continues to run and develop
The BikeAbility Wales project continues to run due to the Laura’s vision and passion capturing the imagination of a number of people that worked with her on the project and her great skill of raising funds for the project.
The project continues to run from Dunvant Rugby Football Club in Dunvant.
Opening times are:
Monday to Friday from 10.30am to 3 pm
Saturday from 11am to 2pm
Please book a session by calling:
07968 – 109145 (Orange) or 07584 – 044284 (Vodafone)
Sometimes we are busy dealing with clients and cannot get to the phone, but please leave a message and we will get back to you 
Laura Bolton obituary
Laura Bolton established Bikeability Wales to give disabled people more opportunities to cycle.
My sister Laura Bolton, who has died aged 46 from an undiagnosed brain condition (hydrocephalus), was a linguist and teacher who established Bikeability Wales, a prizewinning charity for disabled people. She had a great sense of humour and people always laughed with her.
Laura was born at home, in a Worcestershire village rectory, to the poet-priest David Lockwood and his wife Wilhelmina, a Dutch doctor. After school in Worcester, Laura read Italian and French at Aberdeen University and then spent a year teaching English in Tokyo. She later returned to teach in Japan, learning the language and filling her house with Japanese prints and scrolls.
After studying for an MSc in development studies at Swansea University, she stayed on in the city and worked for Sustrans, the sustainable transport charity, and developed the west Wales cycle tracks. She was good at charming people – from farmers reluctant to have the network cross their land to teenagers needing motivation on work camps. Working for Sustrans made her passionate about cycling, but she recognised the difficulties that it posed to disabled people. She started to correct this imbalance by raising money for modified bikes.
The project started with a handful of bikes stored at a business park hotel. But strong local support led to the creation of the charity Bikeability Wales, and this became a full-time job. Bikeability now comprises a fleet of weird and wonderful bikes and was recently awarded money from the lottery. Laura’s contribution was recognised in 2007, 2008 and 2009 by awards for outstanding service in the voluntary sector.
Laura was incredibly untidy. Her bedroom was heaped with discarded clothes, but then she would emerge wearing unusual and slightly zany outfits. She did attempt to keep to a no-flying policy, but the pleasure of seeing her friends across the world and visiting new places won out.
Laura’s connection with Wales started in childhood when we were taken to remote churches in mid-Wales tracking down the wanderings of Francis Kilvert, on whose diaries our father was an expert. While teaching in Japan she was also a Christian missionary, but there became interested in Buddhism and absorbed this into her spiritual beliefs, which were combined in turn with environmentalism.
In 2007 she met Keith, an IT engineer. They married the next year, and within five minutes of the ceremony starting, we were all laughing as we heard the strains of Mendelssohn’s wedding march give way to Daisy Daisy. Keith started off their married life by cycling Laura to the reception.
Laura is survived by Keith, by Wilhelmina, myself and our brother Peter. Our sister Helena was killed in a car accident in 1971; our father died in 2005.
Diana Lockwood
guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 29 September 2009 18.47 BST
2009 Leaflet launched
BikeAbility Wales are pleased to announce the launch of a brand new 2009 leaflet!
The leaflet provides lots of information on what we do, what’s on offer and how you can get involved.
Download the BikeAbility Wales 2009 Leaflet (PDF Format)
Visit from Quest88 on July 10th
Quest 88, who manufacture and stock a wide range of specialist cycles will be at Dunvant from 11am – 6 pm on Thursday, July 10th.
They will have a variety of different bikes for you to try out. We will also have all our bikes there too, so please come along and have some fun.
For me details, please contact Laura Bolton on 07968 109145 or e-mail: bikeability@ntlworld.com
All ability roadshow comes to town
The All Ability Roadshow is coming to Swansea on April 10th and it’ll be a great opportunity to try out the Quest 88 range of All Ability Leisure products for all ages and abilities.
Refreshments will be provided. So come and join us on Thursday 10th April 2008 from 10:30 am to 3:00pm at Dunvant Rugby Club, Broadacre, Dunvant. SA2 7RU.
If you’d like to know more then contact us or telephone 07968 109145.
You can see and learn more about the Roadshows and Quest 88 products on their website at www.quest88.com
Dunvant cycle track
The Dunvant cycle track is now finished and the white lining will be done soon together with the bridlegate installation.
Pictures to follow soon….
Laurence Bailey Foundation Grant Funding
Great news – we’ve got another grant from the Laurence Bailey Foundation, and have bought another red trike, which is stored in County Hall.
The story of Raymond
Depite Raymond having learning difficulties, he really wanted to ride a bike.
He came out cycling with BikeAbility Wales for the first time about two years ago, and initially could only ride a trike. He gradually progressed to riding a small bike, and has now learnt to ride a full size bike, and we cycled from county hall to Verdi’s and back. He hopes to get a bike of this own one day.
This should give everyone encouragement to follow Raymond’s example.
Open Day – February 14th and 15th
BikeAbility Wales are running two open days in February on the 14th & 15th from 10 AM to 3PM at Dunvant rugby club.
Everyone is welcome and we have bikes to suit everyone…
Trikes, Tandems, Go karts, Handcyles, Wheelchair Bikes
The cost per session is Children – 50p, Adults £1.
If you would like to know more or have any queries then either contact us via our contact form on the website or call 07968 109145.
We look forward to seeing you on the day.
A Wedding and a Wheelchair Transporter
The wheelchair transporter, bought with a grant from the Barchester healthcare foundation is proving very popular. We take out a man called Eddie Ahearn every week, he had to have his foot amputated as a result of diabetes, he used to be a keen cyclist, and he loves going out on it. We have also taken Claire Wildman on it.
What’s the significance of the wedding? Well BikeAbility Wales’ very own Laura Lockwood got married and is now officially Mrs Laura Bolton – and the relevance of this is that the wheelchair transporter was used, with Keith (Laura’s husband) cycling, to go from County Hall to Morgans.
Even the South Wales Evening Post ran a news story on the special day.
Congratulations to Laura and Keith from all of us at BikeAbility Wales.
