A WIRRAL firm is providing more than 100 hire bikes to staff at Arrowe Park Hospital in support of their fight against coronavirus - and needs Globe readers' help to deliver even more.
HYPE Merseyside will hand the bikes to frontline NHS over the next month after their initial offer to staff from Arrowe Park was met by an overwhelming response.
Sixty applications for the first 100 were received in just 48 hours from employees living within five miles of the hospital.
HYPE is now inviting other NHS workers from Merseyside to apply for a bike and launched a crowdfunding campaign to raise £20,000 to help it deliver even more bikes to members of the 50,000+ NHS staff community across the region.
It is hoped the campaign will encourage frontline workers and the wider community to use cycling as a way of staying fit and healthy.
Globe readers can support the campaign by either making a donation via the crowdfunding page or contacting them directly to donate unwanted bikes they may have.
The bikes will allow recipients to travel for free and avoid using public transport while travelling to work during the pandemic. The unwanted bikes will be collected from homes across the region throughout April and May.
All money raised from the crowdfunding campaign will be spent on buying more bikes and repairing those donated by the public, for use NHS workers across Merseyside.
Matthew Houghton, chief executive at HYPE Merseyside, said: "We believe that the NHS staff working tirelessly across the region in the face of the COVID-19 outbreak are true heroes, the real 'pride of Merseyside' and we wanted to find a way to show our appreciation and help them during this crisis.
"Providing 100 bikes from our existing fleet was an immediate and obvious way that we could help.
"However, it quickly became clear that the demand was far greater than our initial supply.
"With the help of the people of Merseyside, we can use our network and expertise to go even further and source more bikes, providing more frontline workers with free, healthy and safe transport."
Janelle Holmes, Chief Executive at Wirral University Teaching Hospital, said: "This is a great initiative that offers an extra option for staff to travel to work at such an important time.
"Health and wellbeing of staff is a priority and this offers an additional benefit of exercise.
"The support the Trust has had from the community during the COVID-19 outbreak has been fantastic and I would like to say a very big thank you."
Julie Barnes, lead commissioner for transport and technology at Wirral Council, said: "The innovative scheme, launched by HYPE, is helping our amazing NHS staff on the frontline during this uncertain time, including those at Arrowe Park.
"It is important that we all look after one another during the ongoing COVID-19 situation and I am delighted that a sustainable, healthy and free option is being made available for those who need to travel for work.
"I'd like to encourage all our NHS workers to take this opportunity and apply for one of these bikes and thank them as they continue to help us to fight this virus."
Matthew Houghton added: "We want bikes that are too big, too small, rusty or those that you simply don't have space for anymore.
"Our team will be happy you collect them, repair them and give them a new lease of life before handing them over to one of our local NHS heroes.”
Established in 2007 to deliver workshops for teenagers in deprived wards during the summer holidays, HYPE Merseyside’s cycling and development plan now focuses on getting more people, more active, more often through cycling.
It also aims to make cycling cheaper, safer, more accessible and a natural choice for transport.
The company’s sustainable plan is to provide more bikes to NHS staff within the next six months from its refurbished and recycled stock.
Each recipient will retain the donated bike until the end of the year, after which they will be absorbed back into HYPE Merseyside’s fleet of hire bikes, for use in its community activities.
Any additional money raised beyond the organisation’s crowdfunder target will be donated to NHS Charitable trusts.
If you are an NHS worker in Merseyside and would like to apply for a bike, please complete HYPE’s online form www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/NHSbikes
To donate to HYPE Merseyside’s crowdfunding campaign, visit: www.crowdfunder.co.uk/bikes-for-nhs
For donating bikes, there is now a form at the bottom of this page:
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