cycle BOOM

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You are here: Home / Videos / Erica Willis

Erica Willis

Study area: Oxford
Age: 60s
Location: Village
Cycling history: Diminished
Bike: pedal

Themes:  Fitness, Mobility, Sociability, Topography, Exercise

Erica lived in Eynsham, a large village 7 miles to the North West of Oxford. She had recently retired from teaching reception-aged children and had lived alone since her husband died in 2012. Growing up in NW London Erica had cycled extensively until having to travel further to school and then leaving home to live in locations she found unsuitable for cycling. This changed when moving to Eynsham which was fairly flat, small and other cyclists were visible. She purchased a `basic bike’ and rear seat to transport her daughters and they cycled locally as a family as well as some occasional commuting to her part time jobs. This increased when she started teaching full time in nearby Witney whereupon she bought a new bike as part of a plan to get fit. Erica was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2011. She had done occasional, very local, cycling for fitness since she started her treatment for cancer and preferred cycling to driving.

In this film Erica explains how having the structure of the cycle BOOM trial helped her to re-engage with using her bike and the many benefits she gained including increased fitness, less back pain, ease of shopping locally, connecting to nature and people, losing weight, sleeping better and how cycling in the outdoors was preferable to the gym.

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Update post cycle BOOM

February 13, 2017 By Tim Jones Leave a Comment

Welcome back to the cycle BOOM blog. After a busy crescendo to the project, with our conferences in … [Read More...]

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EPSRC [Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council] Lifelong Health and Wellbeing Oxford Brookes University Cardiff University University of Reading University of the West of England
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Funded by the Lifelong Health and Wellbeing cross-council programme. Grant No. EP/K037242/1