As the COVID-19 pandemic sent the UK into lockdown and all group sporting activities were cancelled or postponed including the London Marathon, Jess Daly was desperate to continue her fundraising for Cure Leukaemia and hit her initial fundraising target, which prompted Dad Steve to devise a novel fundraising avenue.

The Daly family set about raising some money to top up the JustGiving page and enabling the local community to get out and about on their bikes – Burbage Charity Bikes was born!

When Jess’s neighbour, Callum, had just received the news that he had relapsed for a third time and his Acute Lymphoblastic Leukaemia (ALL) had returned, which prompted Jess to get her running shoes on and fundraise for Cure Leukaemia.

Burbage Charity Bikes is a project which initially saw Dad Steve repairing and servicing bikes of people in their village in his back garden, in return for a donation. The project has since grown and now sees members of their community donating second-hand bikes to the family who then clean, service/repair and then re-sell the bikes with 100% of the money going straight to the charity. The family have just bought a new trailer to help them transport a current range of over 90 bikes to and from their storage.

Fast forward two and a half years later, and the family have just passed a staggering £100,000 raised for the charity. They have sold over 1900 bikes, run the London Marathon and were last year named Cure Leukaemia’s Community Fundraisers of the Year to mark their incredible achievements.

“Dad posted on the village Facebook page and the response was incredible,” Jess explained. “People from all over the area were bringing their family’s bikes for service so they could go out for bike rides in the fantastic weather we have had recently.

“Then he asked people if they had spare or unused bikes that could be donated for him to refurbish and sell on and, once again, we could not believe the response!

“Raising such an incredible amount of money would not have been possible without the support and generosity of the local communities and businesses. We never anticipated the 2020 lockdown project, which was to top the marathon fundraising total, to have gone quite this far!”

Dad Steve was equally amazed by the landmark. “When Jess suggested that she raise her target on her JustGiving page to equate to £100 per mile of the marathon, I said “That’s not feasible, we will never hit that target.” It has really caught us off-guard. The generosity all around – whether it is donating a bike, people who are purchasing a bike and we have bikes being re-donated back to us to sell on again!”

Chief Executive James McLaughlin was full of admiration for the Daly family. “The Daly family are truly amazing! They have spent hundreds and hundreds of hours dedicated to voluntarily fixing and selling bikes to support Cure Leukaemia. I cannot thank Steve, Jess and the family enough, especially to raise £100,000 in such a short period of time.”

To follow the Daly’s Burbage Charity Bikes on Facebook, click here