By William Moncrieff, Communications Officer.

Shona Black puts great value on being physically active, socially active, engaged in the outdoors and surrounded by nature. These things have remained important to her throughout her journey of sight loss and accessible, thanks to her determination and love for tandem cycling.

Shona (aged 61), who is registered severely sight impaired, has been attending tandem and cycle clubs across the East of Scotland for many years. She said, “I got my own tandem and that really opened so many doors for me.

“I get a buzz from cycling, I really enjoy it. I just love being in the outdoors and in nature.”

Although Shona gets a real sense of excitement from taking part, recently she has been focusing on providing inclusive and accessible opportunities for individuals with disabilities across the East of Scotland. This has resulted in Shona starting two inclusive tandem clubs, called In-Tandem East Lothian and VIE Velo.

One reason for Shona starting her clubs, was to help provide others with the same benefits that she has been provided with. “It’s great being with people. You can be out for a cycle, listening to the bird songs and chatting to the people around you,” Shona said.

Shona first became a member of Talking Tandems, a tandem club based in Fife. However, after trying to create an opportunity that could be based out of Edinburgh, Shona co-founded VIE Velo. VIE Velo is a cycle group that is based in the heart of the city, which go on cycles the first and third weekend of the month.

Following the creation of VIE Velo, Shona wanted to provide more opportunities in the East Lothian region and to reduce travel requirements for those living outside of the city. Consequently, she founded the In-Tandem East Lothian club, which ride on the second and fourth weekend of the month.

Through her experiences over the last few years of attending and founding clubs, Shona has really started to notice the psychological benefits that her clubs can provide. She said, “The social part of it is so important, especially as people can feel socially isolated. Often I think that the social part is just as important as the physical activity.”

Shona has also found inclusive ways to create a social community within In-Tandem East Lothian.

“We try and provide a shorter ride and a longer ride, and we always try and start together. One group can stop and have a coffee and the group doing a longer route can continue on to somewhere else before stopping for their coffee,” Shona explained.

Shona’s next project is supporting more women to feel comfortable being volunteer pilots at her clubs (The pilot goes at the front of the tandem and is in charge of steering.)

Shona commented, “I have found that a lot of female pilots can be quite nervous thinking that they often can’t do it.”

As a result, Shona and her friend have created an action plan to try and showcase how being a pilot is achievable for anyone. “We are really targeting getting more female pilots involved in the club. Along with my friend who is a pilot and the chair of the club, we are going to go along to some of the Breeze Rides, just to show some females that they definitely can do it.”

Shona is keen that this proves to be successful in helping create more opportunities and growing confidence with potential female pilots, resulting in more individuals being physically active.

“I believe in sport for all, to be outdoors exercising with other people can do so much for your mental health,” she said.

Furthermore, the physical benefits are substantial. Shona said: “There was one gentlemen who came along to In-Tandem and at the beginning he could only do the shorter route. Now he has moved up to the longer ride. He has really enjoyed getting his fitness up and getting more confident being out and about.”

In-Tandem East Lothian pride themselves on being a tandem club that cater for individuals with varying abilities and disabilities. To help with this, the club have recently received funding from Mussleburgh Area Partnership, which has supported the club purchase an E-Tandem, which will further help the club continue to deliver a person-centered approach.

If you would be interested in finding out more about In-Tandem East Lothian and VIE Velo, plus potential opportunities to become either a participant or volunteer at the club, you can email: intandemel@gmail.com

Alternatively, you can reach out to your Regional Development Manager to discover what opportunities are available throughout your region.

To keep up-to-date on all of the ongoing work. Make sure to follow Scottish Disability Sport on Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn.