Nick And Hannah’s Story

My children, Hannah and Nicholas, are vision impaired and very light sensitive, due to albinism. In addition, Nick and Hannah also had tethered spinal cords at birth. Surgery later untethered their spinal cords, however, some balance and motor planning issues still remained. Due to the combination of my children’s vision, balance and motor planning issues, they had not been able to make the usual transition from training wheels to riding a bike independently.

I know that without Lose the Training Wheels, neither child would ever have learned to ride a bike. LTTW, with its specially modified bikes with a series of progressively more difficult rollers, was their best chance to learn to ride.

The night before Bike Camp Week started, Hannah and Nick were almost too excited to sleep. Nick wouldn’t even take a break the first couple of days, so determined was he to succeed. It wasn’t easy, but their spotters remained by their side to urge them on and help as needed.

Then on Wednesday, Nick rode a two-wheeler by himself! I cried tears of joy. Hannah was disappointed when she couldn’t do it that day, or the next. On Friday she arrived determined and praying that she, too, would ride a two-wheeler that day. After several wobbly attempts, she finally consented to placing a guiding handle on the back of her bike so that spotters could help her. As I watched from outside the gym, Hannah did it! Beaming with joy, she rode around the gym a few times, and then her spotters took her outside to ride around the tennis courts and the school playground nearby with Nick. All in one day, she learned to start and stop, steer and use her handbrake.

There must have been some special magic in that Mystic Trek bike from Bike Gallery we bought Hannah, combined with all the groundwork that the LTTW bikes had laid that week. But when she got on it, she was soon riding “on her own” with no spotting or help at all.

God bless that little bike, and everyone who made Bike Camp possible.