Across the world, children are getting excited for what Father Christmas may be leaving them this year. Amongst them, there will be many Children in the Newport area who have their very own “Cycling Santa” to thank for a bike this year.

Rather than heading to the North Pole we travelled just to the North of Newport to meet a very special man who has given up his time to receive, repair and rehome over forty bikes in just four weeks to Children in the local area.

The Project started just 4 weeks ago when “Cycling Santa” passed a Charity shop seeing a lonely child’s bike for sale for just £2.50 he knew that with a little TLC this bike could be made to look as new and given a new home for a child to enjoy.

“The bike was almost perfect and needed just a small amount of work done to it at almost no cost at all it was in top condition and after placing it on Twitter I had a visit from a mum who was extremely grateful of a free bike to her child, and it all went from there.

This then got me thinking there will must be lots of bikes that have been outgrown by young riders and rather than sending them to a landfill they could perhaps be rehomed to people in need and would appreciate the joy and freedom a bike can offer. “

Using Twitter word quickly spread across the local community that bikes were becoming available for local people who could rehome a bike.

Local Development Officer, Dan Coast said “The project was growing momentum and our local clubs have really helped the project by helping “Cycling Santa” to collect and rehome the bikes as well as calling out to members to help spread the word and add to the bikes and equipment donated. The project has really highlighted the true Christmas spirit within the Cycling community in helping young people to enjoy everything that goes with having a bike”.

As we all know, a bike isn’t just for Christmas and the project has linked to other local schemes to help provide bikes within the local communities and play a part in making Newport more cycling centric.

On behalf of all the young children who will be enjoying their new bike this Christmas, we want to say thank you to Newport’s very own “Cycling Santa”.

To find out more about the project or to see what bikes are available for rehoming please email Dan Coast