Aged care residents virtually cycling 3700km for charity

Tweed Heads men Holden, 89, and Keith, 81, recently joined the stationary cycling group at home at Bolton Clarke Raffles.

It wasn’t long before they decided to put their pedal power to good use, and the pair have now set off on a virtual cycle up the Queensland coast from their Tweed Heads home to Cairns and back, all while raising money for macular degeneration.

Holden and Keith, who are both vision impaired, kicked off the epic ride on Friday at the Coolangatta Sands Hotel and are planning to virtually stop into a pub in every town on their way up the coast, encouraging donations to their GoFundMe page supporting the Macular Disease Foundation Australia.

“I am 89 now and I wanted to do something so I thought could do this for macular degeneration,” Holden said.

“It’s surprising how much work has gone into researching the disease and I think Australia is leading the world.

“I want to keep it that way, so Keith and I are aiming to ride about 20 kilometres a day.

“We have already been doing an hour every morning and an hour every afternoon, so we are ready for this!”

He said the Macular Disease Foundation Australia was a cause close to both men’s hearts as Keith is blind and Holden lives with macular degeneration.

They are aiming to raise $10,000 and are encouraging people to virtually share a drink with them from each pub they ‘stop’ at along the way.

After pedalling over the weekend, they have now reached The Glen Hotel in Eight Mile Plains and are aiming to be at The Ettamogah Pub in Palmview later this week.

Holden and Keith are asking for locals to donate here: https://www.gofundme.com/f/bolton-clarke-raffles-ride-for-sight