September Club Night

Nick Lilley, Saturday, 14 September 2024

At our September Club Night we welcomed Karen Croft, a trustee of Mental Heath Motorbike. After a distinguished career with MCIA (Motorcycle Industry Association), Karen, amongst other things, is responsible for setting up the provision and administration behind the charity’s Mental Health First Aid courses.

The aim of the charity is to promote the wellbeing benefits of motorcycling through a network of support for bikers, by bikers. As she said, motorcyclists don’t generally pass a fellow motorcyclist in trouble at the side of the road so why would they not come to the aid of someone who is struggling in other ways? It is an invisible illness, there are no spots, no swellings no broken limbs; a broken spirit is not an obvious ailment.

Karen’s target is to train 1,000 volunteers by the end of 2024, enabling them to offer appropriate support to riders struggling with their mental health. If anyone wishes to know more about the charity and their work or indeed, is in need of a little support, Tarnya Brink answered Karen’s call and is a Mental Health Motorbike first aider/practitioner.

The charity’s website is https://mhmotorbike.com/. Please take a look.

As Mark said, as he thanked Karen, CWAM tries to be an inclusive club, enfolding its members in a warm embrace (I paraphrase his sentiments because I can’t really remember what he actually said). If you spot someone on their own or a newcomer, just pop over and say hi.

Only one presentation this week and that was to Matthew Davidson who was given his certificate by Training Officer, Andy Spencer ilo his observer Mark Ford who was otherwise engaged.