HER STORY | Trudy Whitcombe

Her Story. A series of blog posts telling the stories of 'women who ride' from all corners of the globe. We hope that by sharing these stories we can help encourage other women to build their confidence, learn from others and inspire others.

This month we have a story from a very inspiration rider, Trudy Whitcombe from Hunter Valley NSW Australia. Trudy has only been riding for a couple of years but in that time, she has organised a large annual ride to raise money for the Tourette Syndrome Association of Australia, a cause close to her heart.

We hope you enjoy her story.

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TRUDY WHITCOMBE

"Hi, my name is Trudy and I’m 48 years old, yes 48! I live in the Hunter Valley NSW and have only been riding for the last 2 years, but man have I packed a lot into that 2 years.

I started riding after my husband bought a bike. He took me for a ride and I hated, HATED being a pillion, so the decision was made to buy me a little second-hand bike and see how I’d go. So, into my life came Joy! A 2007 Honda CBF250 in the prettiest shade of blue I had ever laid eyes on.

Having never even driven a manual car I was surprised that I took to riding like a duck to water and loved it. My husband, being a typical male, pushed me hard so I got up to speed pretty fast and had my provisional licence in well under a year.

When I started riding I searched for other like-minded females in my area to ride with and found a group of women that I really gelled with. We formed such a bond and had such similar ideas of what we wanted to achieve from a riding group that late last year a group of five of us co-founded our own female riding group called The Red Torquettes. Between the five of us we have over 60 years riding experience, ranging from 2 years to 32 years riding!

We found some groups unaccepting of Learner and provisional licences as they did not want to have to slow down or take the time to teach new riders the skills required to be a good rider. Our newly formed group does a range of rides suitable to all levels of experience and bike types. We always advise if a ride will not be suitable for learners, and we always take the extra effort to encourage our learners. We will even ride to their homes to collect them if they are a little road shy to ride by themselves. Our group accepts anyone who identifies as female and who rides, no age limits, no skill limits and no bike is excluded, you just have to want to ride and have fun!

My new passion led me to set up an annual charity ride called The Ticnic Ride for Tourette’s, to raise money for the Tourette Syndrome Association of Australia. My husband and son both have Tourette Syndrome and I wanted to give back to an association that had helped us so much. And we all know how generous the rider community is. My first year I raised over $7,000 and I hope to bring this figure over $10,000 in the 2018 event.

The other founders of The Red Torquettes think the same as me and we all want to do a lot for our community in many ways, and we have some big plans in the future for fundraising and are in discussion with a large Australian organisation to do a fabulous event for them that we hope will attract a lot of attention.

I’ve had such fun on my little bike and so many adventures with my new riding family that I can never imagine my life before riding. That feeling of the wind on my face and being able to forget all my troubles while I just concentrate on me, my bike and the ride is phenomenal, and the exhilaration of being just inches from the asphalt, well, nothing compares to that!

I can’t wait to continue my riding journey with many more memories to be made with my ride family. I love each and every one of them. And my suggestion for fellow lady riders out there, never let fear hold you back!"

THE TICNIC RIDE FOR TOURETTES EVENT DETAILS

Sunday 6th May 2018

9:30am registration for a 10:30am stands-up with an approx. 1.5hr ride

This year's event starts at 1A First Street, Booragul on Lake Macquarie near the Teralba Amateur Sailing Club sheds and takes a winding route to the Paxton Hotel where there will be entertainment, stalls and raffles.

@theticnicridefortourettes
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ticnicridefortourettes
Event details: https://www.facebook.com/events/184283002118677

I have a mycause fundraising page set up as well
https://www.mycause.com.au/page/163580/the-ticnic-ride-for-tourettes
or just go to the mycause website and search the Ticnic ride for Tourette's

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Thank you to Trudy for sharing her story and if you would like to share your story with us simply go to the GET IN TOUCH page of the website and fill in the form and we will gladly be in touch.