Nottingham Girls Can!
I’m so glad I became part of Notts Girls Can, grateful for the opportunities it has opened and friendships it has given me. I hope I can inspire other women to get involved – because it’s not what you do in life you regret, it’s what you don’t do.
I rediscovered cycling after 25 years of inactivity just a couple of years ago. It’s an amazing experience being involved in This Girl Can here in Nottingham, which started when I was featured in the advert and This Girl Can documentary produced by Notts Girls Can.
Two years later and I’m a This Girl Can ambassador and Chair of a cycling club! Nottingham Girls Cycle is a friendly social cycling club and our aim is to get more women in Nottingham on bikes in an environment where they are safe, can take things at their own pace and will not be judged.
I know I don’t look like a cyclist. Let’s face it, I’m never going to look good in Lycra! I think this makes me approachable to other women, and hopefully they see me and think to themselves ‘if she can do it, so can I’! Because I know they can!
So now I’m using my own experiences and the friends I’ve made along the way to help other women overcome the barriers that stop them cycling. This year, we’ve developed a Couch to 20K cycling programme – taking women who arrived anxious, nervous and incredibly unsure of themselves and transforming them into confident cyclists with a new support network and group of friends. These women are superwomen but they don’t know it and to play even a tiny part into their development makes me enormously proud.
I’m so glad I became part of Notts Girls Can, grateful for the opportunities it has opened and friendships it has given me and hope I can inspire other women to get involved – because it’s not what you do in life you regret, it’s what you don’t do and joining the This Girl Can movement changes your life and is something you will never, ever regret!
