Graham Newling
My journey back into cycling is quite different to many
other middle aged men.
As I’m very grateful to ABC Bikes and I want to share my
story.
Just before last Christmas I had a stroke. Cause
unknown. It happened to me when I was riding my motorcycle. Fortunately I
was able to park it without crashing.
It was a left brain artery blockage and it destroyed my
language centre. I couldn’t talk, read or write. Some of my nerves
on my right side were damaged but luckily my body was still working fine.
I couldn’t work so I had time on my hands at home.
I grabbed my old bike out of the shed. First of all I
had to test my balance to make sure that I could still stay upright. Step
one gained me some confidence.
Step two was to spend time exploring new routes and finding
some more hills. I went out first thing in the morning. It started
to feel really good. Something like endorphins, adrenalin, breathing,
oxygen, zen, karma, all of that came along with it. It felt like my heart
was pumping more blood through my brain and speeding up my healing
process. During and after the ride my body and my brain felt better.
I noticed that my speaking, reading and writing improved
after every ride.
Step three was joining a bunch of local guys riding 50kms
each Sunday morning and doing a few short rides at 5.30 on weekdays. I
practiced talked to them as well.
Gradually the hills felt flatter, my speed increased. Speaking,
reading and writing are all connected so all of it was all starting to come
back. It got me into cycling which I now do regularly.
I realised that my 25 year old Ricardo was a bit less
slicker than the other bikes. I learned a lot about bikes from the guys
and I got in touch with ABC bikes.
Nine months after my stroke I’m now going back to work (part
time) and now commute to work on the bike 24kms per day. For me cycling
went hand-in-hand with my speech therapy. From my experience I believe that
cycling may also be able to prevent dementia and fix many other types of brain
injuries.
That’s the story of my journey. I write this as part
of my therapy and practice. Of course I wrote this just after my ride
this morning. It was even better on my new Avanti from ABC bikes.
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