A Monifieth mother has thanked organisers of a charity cycling marathon for turning her daughter’s distress at having to pull out of the event in traumatic circumstances into delight.
Claverhouse Rotary Club were so moved by what happened to six-year-old Alyx Gray that they made a special award of a Dundee Cyclathon 2013 medal to the brave youngster.
Alyx, a pupil at Seaview Primary, had covered 19 of the 26 miles round Dundee earlier this month with grandmother Karen Cathro when misfortune struck.
Karen came off her bike at the bridge at Fairfield Park and suffered a nasty cut to her knee.
She was treated at the scene before being taken by ambulance to Ninewells Hospital to have stitches inserted to the wound.
Alyx was shocked at the disturbing episode and was sad that she had to give up the marathon cycling challenge.
Word of the incident reached Claverhouse Rotary, who decided that Alyx deserved the same medal as the hundreds of other cyclists for what she had been through.
Her grandmother, who is on the mend, received a medal too.
“It was so good of the Rotary club to do this,” said Alyx’s mother Jody. “Alyx was so looking forward to doing the cyclathon with her gran and then this terrible thing happened.
“Seeing her gran have to go to hospital and then realising that she couldn’t complete the event really upset her.
“She was down in the dumps but then she came home from school with this huge smile and showed me the medal.
“The Rotary club had gone to the school to present it to her, which was really kind of them.”
Harrison Watson of Claverhouse Rotary said: “We are really keen for families to take part in the cyclathon and were very sorry to hear that this little girl had such a traumatic time. It’s good that her grandmother is recovering.
“We are very pleased to present them both with medals which we hope makes up for their distress.”