Wheels for Wellbeing would like to say a huge thank you to the Ahmed family and Tomcat for their extremely generous donation of a trike! The model, which is a Tomcat Dragon, will be made available to participants once the Croydon sessions restart.

The Dragon was donated to us in memory of a loved one, Ghulam Ahmed. Nazia Ahmed’s father Ghulam experienced a Spinal Cord Injury back in 2013, and over the following 18 months received physiotherapy and care at Stoke Mandeville Hospital. A few years later, as his condition worsened, Nazia’s father mentioned that he would like to ‘go on a bicycle’ – something that he had done at the start of his stay at the Hospital.

As Nazia worked for Tomcat, she was able to explore the different options. She and other family members began their fundraising journey at the start of 2018, with Nazia committing herself to running at an organised event every month for a year. Their fundraising target was met the following January, with plans to purchase a Thera Trainer exercise bike being made. Unfortunately however, Ghulam Ahmed passed away before the bike was purchased, in July 2019.

One of the ways in which the Ahmed family has honoured the memory of Ghulam is by using the money raised to purchase 5 Tomcat Dragon trikes. In an email to us, Nazia mentioned that her dad loved seeing the videos she showed him of children and adults Tomcat helped to access cycling. Tomcat donated an additional Dragon trike, bringing the total to 6. The trikes were then donated to various organisations, all chosen by Ghulam’s wife, Shahida Ahmed, on the basis that “users will hopefully experience the joys, thrill and health benefits of cycling”.

To read Nazia’s blog post about her father’s Spinal Cord Injury and the family’s fundraising journey, click here.

Photo: Wheels for Wellbeing Session Manager Emma receiving the trike (left) and delivery driver Kevin with the trike (right).