Introduction
(by Paul Oxborough)
Welcome to our August 2022 Newsletter.
This month has been all about the events. Our team has been very busy out and about all over the country, meeting bikers, supporting our community and generally networking. As this newsletter goes to print, we have done 66 events since January!! Thanks to all the volunteers and team that has made this possible.
Support update - earlier in the year we took a strategic decision to slow the amount of one-to-one support we are delivering, so that we could really review and work out a plan for the future, it’s really important we do it properly, as we grow, and ensure that our volunteers have adequate support in place if they are supporting others dealing with challenging issues. Watch out for updates as we move forward.
Finally, in order to become a lot more strategic as a charity we would like to welcome Karen Cole and Leanne McLean to the board of trustees. Their professional backgrounds will really help us strategically move forward as a charity. We would also like to acknowledge and say thank you to Andy Elwood, who has given so much to the charity over the last two years. Andy has stepped back but hopefully will still enable us to develop the mental health first-aid training strategy.
Lots more events to happen throughout the year, so we hope to see you at one of them. Please have a fantastic late summer and autumn and ride safe.
Paul Oxo
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Staffordshire Bikers Breakfast @ JCB Rocester near Uttoxeter
Sunday 14th August 2022
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WEEBLE'S WORLD
Stress relief setting at maximum. Ride whenever you can, wherever you can and enjoy.
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BMF & Weeble have teamed up to support mental health.
We asked our friend Weeble of Weeble’s World to come up with a new design to symbolise our ‘for all’ ethos and we are blown away by it….
We think it’s a great design and really gets the message across that BMF is for ALL RIDERS, whatever you ride…
Each shirt is ethically sourced, made, printed and packaged, 10% of all sales will be donated to Mental Health Motorbike
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NEW TRUSTEE - LEANNE McLEAN
My name is Leanne McLean, a lifelong lover and not so long rider (26 years) of motorbikes I am delighted to be part of what is an awesome charity, Mental Health Motorbike. My interest in mental health comes from my passion for people and from seeing people in crisis in my career; crises that could have been prevented with better social support/networks and resources. Mental Health Motorbike can provide these through its growing group of supporters and ambassadors.
I recently retired from the NHS after 37 years as a nurse, with my last 7 years working as a Chief Nurse which is where really I picked up my knowledge in safety and safeguarding, and it is this I hope to bring to Mental Health Motorbike. Trustees and members of Mental Health Motorbike have really great ideas about the charity and growing to better support the supporters and the supported. To do this we need a strong platform of agreed policies and procedures (dull but necessary). It is from this platform that the creativity can flourish.
In my spare time I am a professional coach and apart from riding my motorbike, I walk, read, cycle and make stuff!
Go well, ride safe
Leanne
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We need your support to keep the charity running, can you give a few pounds each month? click on the link of QR code below ...
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The roadside brew
(by Martin Smith)
There is a timeless connection between motorcycles and the humble brew. Whether it's T.E. Lawrence sipping tea with the Arabs on his Brough Superior, the Ton-up Boys racing from Café to Café, the meet-up at Starbucks, or the roadside brew.
Partaking in a cuppa has always featured heavily in Mental Health Motorbike. The location isn’t important, nor is the type of beverage. What matters is the ritual of the drink, the break from the ride, and the interaction between friends. Simple chat and an opportunity to just talk.
As restrictions eased after the first Covid lockdown, many of the cafes remained closed and I was introduced to the roadside brew. I had never considered the concept as I had always been able to find somewhere to buy a drink. But here on a layby on the Snake Pass Mental Health Motorbike’s Paul Oxborough was assembling a kitchen before me. An array of mugs was laid out, each populated with a tea bag while a simple stove and gas canister started to boil the water.
If further evidence of the power of a brew were needed, a spare cup was offered to a passing biker who stopped for a chat. A moment was shared and another opportunity to talk about the charity work we were promoting.
Give it a try. You can read more about my equipment here: https://www.redsmartie.com/2022/07/brewing-a-roadside-adventure-with-a-cup-of-tea/
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Women In Motorcyle Exhibition – Tutbury Castle
Saturday 20th August 2022
(by Louise Williamson)
The 2nd year this event has been run, and exactly a year since I first met MH Motorbike on their stand at this event, and what a year it’s been!
We didn’t have a stand this year, so I expected it to be a fairly low key event. My intention was to ask a favour from a couple of the other organisations to see if they would display a few leaflets on their stands. Oh my, what a positive response, everyone I asked was more than happy to help out, and said what fantastic work we do, plus three of the organisations very kindly offered space within their stands for me to work from, how amazing is that! The level of support was actually somewhat overwhelming, and now we know this is a possibility, we can still work at events where we don’t have our own gazebo.
I used the opportunity to circulate and watch many of the different events - a huge variety of useful workshops and inspirational speakers, too many to watch them all. The most interesting thing I learned was from the Ducati mechanic (female of course), and I now know how to oil my chain correctly (did it the next day and I could actually tell the difference when riding, much smoother).
I made some useful contacts and spoke to quite a few people whilst thoroughly enjoying myself. Highlight of the day was sitting on the 1100 Honda Rebel (don’t tell my 500, she will be jealous!), plus the lemon cheesecake from the castle café 😊
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Why not sign up to do a future MHFA course...
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