The Bike Lady of York: How one woman is transforming the lives of refugees through second-hand bicycles

Emma Frost collects abandoned and unwanted machines, fixes them up, and gives them to new arrivals in the city, writes Colin Drury

Emma Frost in her garage (Emma Frost)

Sooner or later, says Emma Frost, she asks everyone the same question: do you have an old bike you can spare?

She is the Bike Lady Of York. Her garage is filled with them, all second hand and in various states of disrepair. They have been given to her by friends, cycling clubs and strangers on Facebook. The city university sent her more than 20. “I once got told there was an abandoned racer down by the river Ouse,” she says. “So my partner and I drove down to rescue it.”

But none of these bikes are for her.

Rather, the 42-year-old – an internet consultant by profession – gets them in, fixes them up, and then gives them to refugees arriving in the city.

In the last two years, she has donated more than 45 such cycles to both adults and children who have ended up here in north Yorkshire after fleeing war in Syria or persecution in Sri Lanka and Malawi.

Officials with the city council and Refugee Action York ask newcomers if they want a free bike. Those that say yes have their named passed to Emma. She sources an appropriate machine, makes it roadworthy (or pays for the repairs), and then, she and her family take the ordered cycle to the recipient’s new home – “on the back of our car rack”, she explains.

Any money spent – it can be up to £40 a bike – comes out of her own pocket.

“Being given a bike is a life-changing event,” the mother-of-two says, stood in her garage, surrounded by a mass of wheels, frames and lights. “You can travel further for work or education or even cheaper supermarkets, and, of course, it keeps you physically and mentally healthy. It makes the world more accessible.”

Officials, in fact, go further than this. The charity Refugee Action York reckon Emma’s scheme, called Bikes In Need, has helped integrate families into the community and is directly responsible for children making friends and adults finding jobs.

“People are arriving here with almost nothing,” says Sally Bourton, chair of the group. “So suddenly having a bike opens up so many opportunities – especially in a flat city like York. It might seem like a small thing but the response we get is it helps newcomers feel like they belong here, it makes them feel at home.”

Anas, a 27-year-old from Syria now studying at the University of York, is the living proof of this.

“It’s the only transport I need,” he says of his bike. “Wonderful. I don’t need to pay a bus to get to campus. I get home quicker so have more time to work. I see friends. I love it. I recommend to everyone – even people with cars.”

Emma herself stumbled on the idea by chance.

Distressed by continually reading about the refugee crisis in 2016, she wanted to do something to help – “but had no idea how from up in York”. Then she read a Facebook post saying a young Syrian new in the city was looking for a second hand bike so he could get to college cheaply.

“I decided to buy him one just on a whim,” she says. “When we took it round, he was so grateful and it was such a privilege being able to do that for someone, I remember walking out afterwards thinking, ‘This is going to be my thing, I’m going to give people bikes.’”

In the intervening two years, the cycles have gone to all manner of newcomers: children and adults; men and women; students and workers. A couple went to five-year-old twins who could neither ride nor speak much English – but who were taught by the elderly neighbour next door after he saw them struggling with their new wheels in the street. Another was given to a three-year-old, complete with stabilisers.

Emma’s own favourite feedback is when she hears a child is riding to school.

“I’ve also seen a couple of the people we gave them to ridding through the city,” she says. “That was brilliant. I was like, ‘I recognise that bike!’”

Now, with her idea proving to be such a hit, other councils are understood to have expressed an interest in running similar schemes. A York homeless charity, meanwhile, is to benefit with Bikes In Need extending to cover people struggling for a roof over their heads.

“The only small problem is the more orders I take and the more bikes I get, the more I have to pay for repairs,” says Emma who first fell for riding herself while living in The Netherlands. “My partner tells me we’ve got to rein in the spending. But then we take another bike round to someone and we see their gratitude and he comes out almost as bad as me: ‘We need to do more!’”

As a result, she is now investigating sources of funding, so she can negotiate a proper contract with a repair shop.

“That’s the next step,” she says. “If I can get that in place I’d love to expand to providing bikes for even more people in need.”

Find out more at bikesinneed.co.uk