A Banff collaboration is now a step closer to keeping local seniors on the right path to lifelong physical activity and wellness.
A one-of-a-kind adaptive bicycle and trailer was showcased at Banff Mineral Springs Hospital last Friday (July 8), after arriving from Varsseveld, Netherlands. The Fun2Go Tandem Companion Cycle and attachable two-seater FunTrain trailer is designed specifically for seniors to stay active and enjoy cycling in a safe and social environment.
Annie Tredray, Banff Mineral Springs’ physiotherapist, personally oversaw a fundraising and partnership campaign to purchase the adaptive bicycle, which costs $19,000, to bring the first model to Canada.
“Seniors are just not having enough fun, bottom line, so how can we help seniors have more fun? This is a start and getting people outside, getting their legs working and getting their lungs working improves their health. Getting them together improves their social connectivity – we know all these things help,” Tredray said.
The bicycle is built by Dutch company, Van Raam, which customizes and builds special needs bikes for adults and children. The Fun2Go is a side-by-side, two-seater bicycle with adaptable seats that swivel for ease of loading and are easily adjustable for personalized comfort and safety.
The FunTrain trailer attaches to the bike and also seats two people side-by-side. A total of three passengers and a trained attendant can ride together at once. Seatbelts, adaptive pedals and high handle bars (with bells) ensure a comfortable and secure ride, with the option to lock the pedals for those who wish to rest their legs and just enjoy the ride. The bike has gears and an electric power assist battery. A trained therapist, caregiver or volunteer is able to control the steering, brakes, gears and electric assist.
“Did you seat the back lift seat? It’s a swivel that turns 90 degrees for wheelchair accessibility,” said Tredray, pleased with the functionality offered by the bike for those with mobility issues. “It’s very comfortable, I’ve ridden on it and it’s very solid, no sense of tipping with this.”
In 2012, Tredray was working with a patient in the long-term care who was having issues with walking and mobility. “She looked out the window and she said to me ‘God I wish I could get outside. I used to bike, I used to walk,’ but she was not capable at that time of walking very much – that started the ball rolling for me,” Tredray said.
“We started biking with the long-term care people once to twice a week and now we have the situation where they come to lineup four days a week – they love it.”
Then Tredray saw a photo of the Fun2Go bike in a report about a dementia village in Holland. “I finally managed to track it down and then started talking to the manufacturer about it. Last year I decided I wanted to raise some money,” Tredray said.
The purchase was funded by donations from the Wim & Nancy Pauw Foundation, Banff Canmore Community Foundation, Banff IODE, Banff Seniors’ Society and Banff Mineral Springs Ladies Auxiliary. Program sponsors include Monod Sports, SkiBig3 and Snowtips-Bactrax.
According to the Pauw Foundation, collaboration between Banff Mineral Springs Hospital (Covenant Health) and the Town of Banff will manage the scheduling, programming, use, storage and maintenance of the bicycle and trailer.
The goal is to ensure that as many seniors as possible have access to use the bike, whether for leisure, rehabilitation, or prescribed physical therapy rides. Immediately, the bike will be put to the test with residents in Banff Mineral Springs’ Long Term Care, and acute care patients and, as soon as possible, prescribed bike rides. By late August, a shared schedule rotation will see use expanded to include seniors living at Cascade House, Mount Edith House and through the Banff Seniors’ Centre.
“The foundation awarded a community grant for the project. On an annual basis we hold an open call for applications and one of the applications that was selected this year was the adaptive bicycle project put forward by Covenant Health for physical activity,” said Banff-Canmore Community Foundation executive director Lorraine Widmer-Carson.
“Annie is the amazing energy behind this vision; and the committee was really excited to see another way to help in seeing our seniors stay active and get outside.”
In Tredray’s position she witnesses more and more seniors with declining mobility having an increased number of falls, which lead to affecting their overall health, socialization and ability to remain active. Tredray began sharing her vision to introduce a falls prevention program for Banff, with the adaptive bicycle as an integral piece of equipment to get the program started.
The project quickly saw both funding and programming partners commit support to address this important issue for the elderly population.
“The three things I’ve identified in falls, because this is all about really preventing falls, with people 80-years-old or more, is half of them will have a fall and when they fall devastating things happen. So how can we stop this from happening? Low extremity strength we need, social connectivity is absolutely huge and general cardiovascular exercise,” Tredray said.
“Those three things together is what helps against falls, so we’re doing all three at once – and just having fun. These guys don’t have enough fun and that’s the bottom line for me. That was the method for my madness, how can we prevent falls while having fun?
“The other beautiful thing about this is the collaboration with the Town of Banff, looking at how do we manage our elderly population? The number of 85-year-olds is set to quadruple in population over the next 20 years – we need more programing like this, and I say bring it on.”
