New wheels give teenager extra mobility
Flavio Scarpa stressed that he and Cycling4mobility remained committed to raising more money from their annual weekend of MTB and trail running races.
OPEN Air School teenager Sabelo Xulu was all smiles as he took delivery of a brand new, customised wheelchair donated by Cycling4Mobility from proceeds of the Sappi Scottburgh MTB Race in July.
Race organiser Flavio Scarpa joined Beth McLeod from Cycling4Mobility and the QuadPara Association of South Africa’s Jodie Kroone to hand over the unique wheelchair to sport-crazy Xulu, who hails from Colenso and is a boarder at the school in Glenwood.
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Xulu has dreams of competitive table tennis and wheelchair basketball, and hopes that the new wheelchair, which has been specifically designed to support him and his unique spinal curvature challenges, will make him quicker around the table tennis table as he prepares for upcoming provincial matches.
The modest teenager was grateful for his new wheelchair, but humbly implored Cycling4Mobility and the mountain bikers who helped raise the money for his wheelchair to continue their good work to enable them to support other young men and women facing challenges similar to his.
Scarpa, who is an avid mountain biker himself, has always had Cycling4Mobility as the beneficiary of the Scottburgh race that has started 11 years ago.
“As able-bodied sportsmen and women, it is nothing short of a privilege to be able to ride our bikes on the trails around Scottburgh knowing that we are directly making a difference to others who don’t have the same luxury of mobility,” he said.
“We are inspired by the work that Beth (McLeod) does at Cycling4Mobility and Jodie (Kroone) does at QASA creating opportunities for wheelchair-bound men and women in the corporate world,” he added.
Scarpa stressed that he and the Cycling4Mobility team remained committed to raising more money from their annual weekend of MTB and trail running races, and said he was looking forward to being able to hand over another wheelchair to a youngster as deserving as Xulu.
DAVE MACLEOD
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