Special Wheels of Joy in Dundalk

Variety – the Children’s Charity of Ireland were delighted to present a special wheelchair bike to the wonderful students and teachers at the Cairde Unit, Redeemer Girls National School in Dundalk earlier this week.

Thanks to the support of Minister of State at the Department of Health and at The Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth, Hildegarde Naughton and Seán Canney from The Department of Transport and the HSE, Variety Ireland were able to fund who delivered a special mobility trike to the teachers and students at Redeemer School as part of our Recycle Mobility Programme.

On hand to deliver this special bike to on behalf of Variety Ireland were the dedicated crew of volunteers from Louth Disability Cycling Club who spent the morning chauffeuring the wonderful pupils with disabilities at Redeemer School around on the new wheelchair bike.

Carmel, who is a teacher in the Cairde Unit at Redeemer NS, was delighted to accept the bike which she said “will ensure equal access to cycling for students who now can be included in cycling activities with their other students”.

In Variety Ireland’s new Recycle Mobility Programme Impact Report & Evaluation Study 2024, conducted by Dr Jolanta Burke of the RCSI and Dr Robert Egan Trinity College Dublin, results show that our Recycle Mobility Programme, which supplies special mobility trikes to children with disabilities, improves the mental and physical wellbeing of both the child, family members and teachers by up to 87.5%

Thanks to the continued support of both Ministers and their departments, Variety Ireland has been able to deliver over 700 special mobility trikes to children’s and schools around Ireland since the launch of the programme back in 2021.

On behalf of all Variety Ireland, Minister Naughton, Minister Canney and The HSE, we wish all students at Redeemer School, many happy years of cycling!