A Hethersett woman is feeling “proud and relieved” after cycling a total of 400 kilometres in May in order to improve her fitness and raise money for a good cause.
Hannah Harrison, 29, decided to cycle 12km on her stationary bike every day for the whole month as a way to improve her fitness during lockdown.
At the same time she has been raising money for Anon Street Team Norwich, a grassroots group of volunteers who feed the homeless and vulnerable on the streets of the city.
She said: “I’m not the fittest person in the world – I’m overweight, I don’t really exercise a lot, so for me it was really difficult.
“It got to a point where I said to myself ‘I can’t be like this all through lockdown’ and I looked for a motivation to keep moving, so I decided to incorporate raising money into it.
“It was mainly from a health point of view, but what better way to do it than to raise some money at the same time?”
Mrs Harrison is an Anon volunteer and usually spends her Sundays in the kitchen cooking food to later be distributed to rough sleepers in Norwich.
With most of the homeless given temporary accommodation during the coronavirus pandemic the group’s help has not been required of late, but Mrs Harrison knows how important it is to raise funds to prepare for when they are needed again.
“Anon isn’t a charity and receives no funding other than what we can raise, so every penny makes a huge difference.”
If that wasn’t enough motivation, Hannah’s 63-year-old mother Wendy, who lives in Beetley, near Dereham, also took part in the challenge on her outdoor bicycle to give her daughter a boost.
“My mum did it as well, just for some moral support, but she ended up doing 12k per day on her actual bike. She’s 63 and she managed it as well.”
This isn’t the first time that Mrs Harrison has completed a physical challenge for charity. She ran a mile every day in April 2019 to raise money for Cancer Research UK, though she admits “that wasn’t anything like this – this was hardcore”.
Mrs Harrison hopes to raise £1,000 in her fundraiser. To donate, click here.Anon Street Team Norwich also has an Amazon Wishlist of useful items for them to keep doing their important work.
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