HOW IT ALL STARTED
The Antony Lord Foundation

ONE BRAIN., ONE LIFE … ONE CHANCE TO LOOK AFTER IT !!
Promoting safer cycling, training and helmets

Antony Lord was born 12^th January 1992 … and lived life to the full., he was a typical boy, cheeky, pushing the boundaries to see how far he’d be allowed to go and yet he was a caring, thoughtful young lad whose heart was in the right place.   At the age of 7, he already had a higher than average IQ of over 140.

Antony’s spirit lives on., partially because he was an organ donor and partially because of the foundation in his name ...... I just hope no other parent has to go through what we both went through that fateful day both at that point in time, later at the hospital, the inquest and still now ... the pain is still very real especially as the potential for it to have been avoided was there! 

Primarily ALF had three aims, one was to try and stop other parents going through what we had to deal with by striving to ensure as many children as possible have access to training.  Secondly, to encourage all children 14 and under, to wear a helmet and Wendy will watch the children and site them for the ALF Award., which tends to go to those who make a serious effort or improve the most during the course in the form of  Certificates of Commendation, especially when the students are there out of choice and consistently listen and do as they are asked or sheer perseverance and determination for example.  Lastly to do school talks – using the hard hitting approach might sound awful but if it prevented another Antony because it hits the mark, then at least his death won’t have been in vain!  Hopefully it will make them aware of what can and did happen to someone very close in geographic terms, in an advisory capacity. 

None of the above on their own will prevent another accident like Antony’s but they will minimise the risks involved – I’ve seen the feedback forms from parents of children that Wendy has already taught and every single one of them have nothing but praise both for her methods of teaching, also how much more competent without being over confident that they now are. 

Wendy now is teaching Bikeability herself, taking Cycling Proficiency into the 21^st Century., she was asked to be part of the ‘gearing up’ process or pilot between September ’06 and March ’07 prior to the national launch., which speaks volumes on it’s own – she got her accreditation as a Bikeability Instructor back in April '07 and now is part of the ongoing trial of defining the standards for full accreditation., she has also been approached by the powers that be with regard to becoming an Instructor Trainer too, so that she can train up Assistant Instructors and possibly mentor provisionally accredited instructors.  More recently she has been involved in the pilot of further trials with the CTSB and looking into setting up a Wheels for All facility down here.

The launch in August 2007 of both Bikeability (on road cycle training) and the new Off Road training scheme in Cornwall with Phillip Darnton, the Chairman of Cycling England co-hosted with Rob Fuller from the CTC (who is also on the board of the Cycle Training Standards Board) in the presence of Lady Mary Holborow JP, Lord Lieutenant of Cornwall, Lord George (better known as Steady Eddie George, former Governor of the Bank of England) and John Franklin, author of the book Cyclecraft, was a roaring success and a day that everyone enjoyed with a special thanks to Milli, who bought crazy bikes down from Wales for it.  Also the BBC who sent Alex out with the satellite van in the morning and the ITV cameras who got to us a little later.

Now finally the funding for training at Bikeability levels 1 & 2 has arrived, you could say 'Job done' and in a sense it is!!  The funding is coming via Cycling England in conjunction with the Youth Sport Trust (who manage the Schools Sports Partnership network) so that Partnership Development Managers are given grants to distribute in their School Sports Partnerships introducing Bikeability into schools in Cornwall, which we had hoped would be in place by the commencement of the new academic year but instead it is finally falling into place now with not only a second year's grant being given to Cornwall but with the SSPs also setting up their ow Bikeability schemes .. long may it last!

If our efforts have helped just one child, then it really is 'Job done' although that is the one thing we will never know for sure ... fingers crossed!