Cyclist in the saddle to raise £5,000 for new Riding for the Disabled facility in Stirling
dailyrecord.co.ukA Torbrex woman whose day job is keeping trains running on Britain’s West Coast mainline has taken to cycling to raise funds local charity Equi-Power while working from home.Eileen Abbess is already on target to cover 500 miles in five weeks to support a campaign to build a new Riding for the Disabled (RDA) centre of excellence in the city’s Kildean area.
She’s aiming to raise £5,000.Equi-Power has the daunting task of finding more than £140,000 from crowdfunding, even before they can start applying for grants to build the £2m state-of-the-art facility to replace one at Sauchieburn in Bannockburn.The Bannockburn Riding for the Disabled facility was shut down in 2015 following a bitter dispute with a new landowner, which saw the RDA and around 200 of its young riders evicted.Since the beginning of the New Year Eileen has clocked up more 260 miles and raised more than £1,000.In foul weather and on dark January nights she has added to her on-the-road total on an exercise bike.“It’s actually harder that being out in the real world.
You can’t free wheel down a hill on an exercise bike,” she said.Eileen hopes that a major push in the first week of February, while she’s on holiday from her job as programme director for the West Coast Partnership, will see her reach her distance and cash targets.She is confident of achieving the miles - but admits that, financially, a lot depends on the people who are following her efforts on Crowdfunder online.
will turn their support into donations.“The task facing Equi-Power is enormous,” said Eileen. “I got involved in part through my friendship with Amanda Namey, who is in charge of the development, and around Christmas time we talked about how fundraising was going.“At that point it was
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