Arbroath mum Lois Speed is asking people to get on their bike to raise awareness of the need for Changing Places toilets.
Lois’s 2014 event The Loo Tour de Britain raised £10,624 but she is now asking people to take part in a more local cycling event called The Loo Tour de Angus over the weekend of September 24 and 25.
She hopes that, through these events, she can raise awareness of the need for Changing Places toilets to be installed and included in everyday public spaces and buildings.
Designed to be bigger and better than conventional accessible toilets, Changing Places toilets are large enough to accommodate a wheelchair and up to two carers.
The toilet design features a ‘Changing Places’ standard fixtures of overhead hoist, peninsula toilet, basin and height adjustable changing bench.
The Loo Tour de Angus will be split into two days with three different cycles that people can sign up to take part in.
‘The Big One’ which will be an approximately 62-mile cycle will start and finish in Arbroath and visit towns with Changing Places facilities such as Montrose, Brechin, Forfar, and Kirriemuir.
The next day will involve two shorter cycles — ‘No.2’ which is a 10-mile cycle from Dobbies in Monifieth to the seafront in Arbroath and ‘Just a Wee at No. 3’, which is a 1.5-mile journey from the seafront to Arbroath Harbour.
There will be adapted bikes available to use at the seafront and stalls at the harbour at Arbroath.
All money raised at this event will go towards helping the charity PAMIS, based at the University of Dundee, buy a mobile Changing Places facility to take to events.
Lois said: “We believe that it is essential that all new public and community buildings include at least one Changing Place toilet in their plans and already existing buildings install one if they can.”
Lois is mum to teenagers Kelsey and Kein who, after losing much of their mobility to muscular dystrophy, require specially equipped changing rooms each time they need to use the toilet.
“These facilities are virtually non-existent and we have to plan each and every outing in advance, because there’s no place the kids can use outwith the sports centres,” added support worker Lois, 37.
“Lifting without a hoist is just not an option, and lying on the floor is not only degrading, but for both Kelsey and Kein it would be physically impossible.”
If you would like to join Lois, or would like more information about the Loo Tour de Angus, you can visit the changing places Facebook page, contact Lois at lois.speed@sky.com or contact Julie Taylor from PAMIS at j.t.taylor@dundee.ac.uk.