An inspirational young Donegal woman has beaten lockdown boredom by embarking on a ‘wheelie’ great cycling challenge to raise money for her local respite centre.
Amy Alexander, aged 19, is taking on the ‘Tour De Cross’ by cycling 15km around her home area in Killygordon.
Amy is aiming to conquer 1km a day (sometimes 2!) with a goal of reaching the target in two weeks.
All funds raised from Amy’s GoFundMe campaign will go directly to the Drumboe Respite Centre, where Amy herself attends regularly.
Amy, who has Down syndrome, enjoys every moment spent at Drumboe Respite Centre. She has been attending for day visits and overnight stays since she was young and loves meeting up with friends and the staff for outings and going for food, which is her all-time favourite activity.
The vital services of the Drumboe Centre inspired Amy and her family to do something to give back during lockdown.
Amy had recently got a new trike but she decided to step up her training with this exercise challenge.
Luiseach Alexander, Amy’s cousin, said: “Amy’s new trike means she is able to join in on cycles with her cousins around our local village. One kilometre a day might not seem like a lot to many people but to Amy it is just like doing the tour de France. The challenge is so exciting for Amy, she gets up every morning asking “When am I going for my cycle?”.”
Amy is also starring in entertaining campaign videos to promote her training achievements, which are well worth a watch on the Amys Tour De Cross Facebook page.
“Amy enjoys making the videos and especially loves making everyone sit down to watch them, she is loving her new acting career. She has now gained two hobbies from the challenge, acting and cycling,” Luiseach said.
The response to the ‘Tour De Cross’ has amazed everyone. In just two days Amy’s cycling has generated €1,400 and every euro is an added bonus.
With 12 more cycling days to go, Amy is on the right track to making her challenge a mighty success, while she is being cheered on by family and friends every pedal of the way.
Luiseach added: “Amy has a huge circle of family and friends supporting her throughout the challenge. Every night she wants the comments left on the Facebook posts read out to her, and seeing her face light up when she hears everyone cheering her on is one of the best parts of the challenge.
“The support that Amy has received from people in our locality and beyond has been unbelievable. Amy’s family have been a huge part of the challenge, ringing and texting every day to cheer Amy on and with ideas for videos and where to go cycling next.”
Visit www.gofundme.com/f/15k-cycle-by-amy if you would like to donate to Amy’s challenge.
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