Mr David Storf
Above photos are of David and his brother at the HSBC city ride in 2019. He cycled from Hunters Bar to the city centre and back.
David Storf was born in Rochdale and has been living in Sheffield since 1973.
David enjoys going to the football and is a season ticket holder with Sheffield Wednesday. Before coming to SC4A (Sheffield Cycling 4 All) he says “I wasn’t doing anything, all I was doing was going to football on Sunday afternoons. Cycling got me out the house’.
This isn’t strictly true, he also went for a weekly walk in Hillsborough Park, which is where SC4A first met David. David would walk round the park with his Dad, and people cycling by would say ‘Hello, you’d be welcome to come along’.
Also, in the early 2000s David went out to the pub quite a bit, but lost contact with people there, he said it ‘fizzled out’. He was getting drunk every night which he said could be dangerous as he is unsteady on his feet.
Before COVID
David Storf was introduced to SC4A in September 2018 by Sheffield Council Focussed Reablement Team. He got hooked straight away. Before COVID he came to every available session on Tuesdays and Thursdays, morning and afternoon and had built up great friendships with the volunteers and participants as a result. This spurred him on to get back to the Gym. He attended Zest, his local gym, once, sometimes twice a week with support.
Since September 2018 David has come cycling 114 times and counting.
This is a big deal.
‘I wasn’t sure at first’ he says, ‘When I have never been somewhere before I always will be (shy) as I don’t know anyone. It’s like I wouldn’t do anything at one time, because I didn’t know how people are going to react to me do I?!’
‘Yeah I was shy, I didn’t say much at the beginning, I’ll talk to anybody now.’
When asked about the health benefits of cycling he said,
‘I get quite a bit out of it because I didn’t do anything and I need the exercise. I have got to be able to do it (exercise) because I fall down, and always will, the more cycling I do the better it gets. It gets strength back in my legs so I don’t fall over as much.’
David is an Ambassador at SC4A, he knows everything about the park, the trikes, the people. He is a well of information. He wants to be able to help out in any way he can. ‘If I can help people out I will do. If you get a new volunteer who hasn’t been around Hillsborough Park, I wouldn’t mind showing them around.’
‘When things go back to normal, if you needed me to go to the shop I would do. I’d go to the shop for you.’
He has brought teabags and coffee for the gang, and had hand-painted mugs made up, that said ‘Sheffield Cycling 4 All’ on them.
During COVID
David said ‘I am hardly out the house now, apart from once a week when my Dad picks me up to go cycling’
‘There is nowhere else to go – more or less, unless I had to go to the shop. You can’t go far without a mask now, I have only worn one once, and that was the other week to go to doctors.’
‘People do worry, people do worry about not being able to get out’
When asked if David worried, he said ‘Sometimes I worry that Barbara (helps out David at home) won’t be able to come into my house and clean and bring food.’
During lockdown SC4A staff called David once a fortnight. David said,
‘It’s good you are checking to see how I am’
SC4A provided David with a mini pedaller so he can cycle at home to maintain his physical activity. Once SC4A opened back up after the first lockdown, David was one of the first to be back cycling on 18th June and has been cycling almost every week since then.
Unfortunately, David doesn’t have a computer, tablet or any device to enable him to go online, this means that he hasn’t been able to attend any of our Zoom classes. However, we are currently looking into lending him a tablet.
When prompted again to talk about the benefits of being in Sheffield Cycling 4 All, he said
‘Put it this way, if it wasn’t for you, there would be none of them’ David gestures over to a wall in his living room, that has 6 framed photos from Sheffield Cycling 4 All. There are photos from our 10-year birthday party cycling session, a photo with Dame Sarah Story and a couple with a super star volunteer CW.
He talked about the Dame Sarah Story meeting a lot. We arranged for him to show her around the park on a side-by-side tandem.
‘I didn’t say much to her. I wasn’t prepared for it, but next time I will be ready. She knew I was shocked; it was so funny. [When cycling in the park] At the bottom she carried on, nearly heading onto the road, HA’
David is clearly very happy.
