Cycling without age | Ole Kassow | TEDxCopenhagenSalon

every morning I cycle to work because I love cycling and one morning I noticed an old man sitting on a bench in a sunny spot with his walking frame next to him he sat there the next morning and for the following two weeks I could tell that he liked to spend time outside because he sported a very nice tan he was always smiling sometimes reading the newspaper and always impeccably casually dressed in country style this is talking a 97 year old gentleman and a nursing home resident and I will tell you how I got to know talking and how that changed my life I had just been flicking through photos of Copenhagen in the 1930s which was quite a jolly Inferno of bicycles and I realised that he too must have been cycling his bike every single day - and most likely enjoyed it as much as I do for generations the bicycle was the preferred mode motor transport for six out of ten people even cities like Los Angeles and Rome and Tokyo and Sydney that time it was quite common for people the older generation today to cycle 25 or 50 kilometres just to get to work but in the 50s and 60s the bicycle was slowly but surely replaced by cars except for a few cities like Copenhagen the bicycle made a comeback back in the late 70s in the early 80s and today continues to be the most important mode of transport no other means that transport is as convenient as the bicycle the bicycle also happens to be the happiest means to transport when we grow older our eyes our legs may prevent us from cycling and I have unusually around our mid 70s we stopped cycling altogether I have heard countless stories of people saying to me how they have reluctantly had to give up cycling because they became afraid of being hit by a car door or crashing and how much they miss the personal mobility and the freedom and the joy of cycling all this made me think Tokio the old man he must miss cycling too and then I thought how can I get him back on a bicycle so one fine August morning two years ago I showed up at the local nursing home with a rented rickshaw I realized that it was a crazy idea and it most likely they would kick me out as I entered the nursing home I was approached by this friendly looking member of staff and I said to her I'm a neighbor I'm here to offer a ride to the residents now that could have been the end of the story but the woman said to me oh that sounds like a great idea let me just check and then she disappeared into the coffee-room and reappeared two minutes later with an old lady under her arm and she said Gertrude and I would love a ride as they boarded the bicycle I asked her true where she wanted to go and her reply was prompt she wanted to go to Langley Nia the boardwalk along the Copenhagen Harbor front where Copenhagen's had been going for Sunday bicycle rides and a stroll and an ice-cream for generations I also learned that Lange Alenia played a very important role in a very special role to Gertrude because she for many years after the war she had lived in Greenland with her husband and children and this is where the Greenland ships used to dock and she told me she could almost smell the tar and hear the seagulls and sense the hive of activity all those details the ride lasted about an hour and after an hour I felt I had an almost magical bond with a stranger Gertrude it almost felt as if I'd been on a time journey with her and when after I dropped off Gertrude and there and enjoying the the staff member I left in a rare spirit the next day the next day I got a phone call from the manager of the nursing home she wanted to know what I had done to Gertrude and then quickly added now all the other residents want to ride too so I rented the rickshaw again and I started offering by Christ through the residents in my spare time and it gave them a whole new mobility and it gave me an insight into my city that I'd never experienced it was quite amazing and I made lots of very unlikely friends I felt like an explorer in unchartered territory now talking the old man one time I took him for a bike ride - and as we were passing through one of the parks in Copenhagen he pointed over to the barracks by Rosenberg castle and said I used to live in there that's when I realized the talking had been a Royal Guard for eighteen months in 1938 76 years ago I decided that all these adventures were just far too good not to be shared with anyone else so I wrote a letter to the city of Copenhagen explaining what I was doing and attaching a few photos and much to my surprise I got a phone call from a lady from the city of Copenhagen daughter who said to me that this was exactly the kind of active citizenship that she was looking to encourage and then she said would you be interested in five rickshaws instead of one and put them on five nursing homes I said you bet so equipped with five bikes we gathered friends and locals and we took all these five rickshaws out on our first ride ten residents about 15 new volunteers and about a hundred other locals cycling on their own bicycles families of all ages cycling along to TV stations showed up several national newspapers even the BBC radio showed up and did a report and after this we had 30 volunteers signing up to ride these five bicycles that's how cycling without age was born now pretty soon cycling without age was spreading to other cities in Denmark and during that time all the bicycles were out cycling several times a day and the feedback we got was absolutely amazing we heard back the people who hadn't been talking for years had started talking again people suffering from dementia would lose their aggressions and actually lift the spirit at the nursing home upon returning from their bike ride and we heard that blind residents were explaining to the volunteers that to them cycling was all about smelling the flowers and hearing the birds and feeling the wind in your hair and the thing about feeling the wind in your hair was something when I said you know I can't agree more with that feeling the wind in your hair is exactly what we're about we're here to fight for people's wind in their hair because when we grow old we lose the stories and our lives the witnesses to them can you imagine can you imagine not having anyone around anymore who experienced what you experienced can you imagine not having anyone to laugh or cry with and imagine knowing that soon all your stories will disappear with you now what does a standard me the most is how very very simple bike rides can have such a profound impact on quality of life both for the elderly and for the volunteers and this doesn't just attract the hardcore the traditional volunteers this is far more like active citizenship it's just like people gathering because they want to make a difference and because they know that that will give them and that was strengthen their relationships it enhances the trust in the local community one of the pilots were Roberto who is from Italy but lives in Copenhagen got started with cycling without age on prescription now his doctor said to him Roberto you need to lose a few pounds and get more exercise and then he wrote a prescription to him cycling without age another volunteer put it this way he said he said you don't have to pretend that this is awesome this is awesome and one of our young volunteers literally got himself a new set of grandparents by oh my striking up a relationship with a couple that has been married for 70 years now he doesn't have scheduled trips where he has the nose he has to show up at certain times this is more like any other friendship where you show up as often or as rarely as you feel like not because it's an obligation but because you want to now I continue to be amazed by all these stories we're now having these bicycles on over a hundred nursing homes throughout Denmark and even in Norway with all the hills and the it humbles me to witness people in wheelchairs coming back from these rides singing and smiling saying I thought I'd never cycle again it's that kind of positive impact that fuels my enthusiasm and gets me out of bed in the morning and I love it when I see other people find that too now three days ago we returned from the longest bike ride yet we went on an adventure ride for 300 kilometers to the city of Hamburg from us in Denmark with ten rickshaws with 20 elderly people and 15 volunteers and the last 20 kilometers when all the batteries had run out we rode them on our adrenaline I truly honestly I had been doing this for a couple of years now I had never imagined what an impact that had on the residents they were aged between 70 and 90 and on the second night during dinner because we had to make three overnight stays a lady called Sigrid who's 90 stood up in front of all of us and said I have never haven't been on a vacation for 15 years and this is the best holiday I've ever had I got goose bumps when she said that and another one of the so-called weaker passengers on the ride put it this way she said I feel alive again now most of these ones they actually arrived when we started the trip they arrived with their walking frames and and even some in wheelchairs they forgot they brought them we had a bus accompanying us they were in the bus all the time and some of them reported that at night they didn't need the tranquilizers to sleep and this is actually arriving in Hamburg this is taken by the Elster Lake in Hamburg where we were sitting and people being totally baffled by we crazy Dame's arriving in Hamburg by rickshaw Chocula and i celebrated our friendship and his 97th birthday two weeks ago by drinking a really good glass of wine because that's something that we both appreciate and the wine waiter when he heard what the occasion was brought out the very best glasses and served the very best wine and Tokyo being very chatty managed to chat to well over 50 people and 50 people who's live I think we impacted that day and what cycling without age has taught me is that even if you are close to a hundred life can and should be beautiful and life in a nursing home should be a place of joy and continued mobility you too can invite a local and neighbor or complete stranger on a journey through cities and through landscapes and by doing so you help create better lives it's all about creating relationships thank you very much

Channel: TEDx Talks

Views: 242,226

Rating: 4.9598088 out of 5

Keywords: Health, Urban Planning, Development/Philanthropy, Denmark, tedx, ted talks, English, Life, ted talk, TEDxTalks, Social Justice, tedx talk, ted, Sociology, tedx talks, ted x, Lifestyle, Culture

Id: O6Ti4qUa-OU

Length: 15min 5sec (905 seconds)

Published: Fri Oct 03 2014