A Falmouth cleaner who relied on his bicycle to get to work before it was stolen says he is “over the moon” after people clubbed together to buy him a new electric bike.
Kevin Bickford was left struggling to get to work near Falmouth Docks after his electric bike became unusable and the pedal bike he used to replace it was stolen.
The purchase of the new bike followed a chance meeting with Michelle Thomas who, although she didn’t know him, spotted he didn’t have his bike and asked where it was.
“On my dog walk I saw him walking up the hill towards Boslowick from Swanpool and I jokingly said ‘Where’s your bike?’,” she said. “He seemed surprised, not knowing me from Adam, but said his bike had been stolen and we chatted a bit.”
He told her his electric bike was beyond repair or too expensive to fix so he’d been riding his push bike but now that had gone. That was his only form of transport so he’d been having to walk everywhere.
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Following her encounter Michelle got on the case and, with Kevin’s permission, started a GoFundMe page eventually raising enough money to buy him a new electric bike along with panniers and a seriously good padlock.
“I’d never done one before and was so warm hearted with people’s generosity as well as their lovely comments,” Michelle told the Packet.
“When we took Kevin to look at the electric bike we’d found, he had a big smile on his face. He said he was over the moon that people had helped and he wasn’t sure how he could ever repay them.
“We both have a massive THANK YOU to everyone who donated. He said he didn’t know how he could ever repay everyone and is so very, very grateful.”
Michelle said she first noticed Kevin on an older electric bike gliding up the steep hills, between Falmouth town to Boslowick/Golden Bank area and often wondered what his story was.
She said his electric bike became beyond repair some time ago and he’d been cycling on a pedal bike to work, up and down Falmouth’s killer hills, but then this was stolen and he was rather struggling by foot.
“Thank you so much everyone!” said Michelle “Job done. Kevin collected his bike, panniers and his padlock this evening and is over the moon. Kevin asked me to thank everyone on his behalf.”
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