Rough road ride reaps rewards

NICK Locandro’s Ride to Remember down South Australia’s Mawson Trail to raise awareness of younger on-set dementia finished up at the University of South Australia in Adelaide last Thursday.

A day later he was back in Ballarat as friends, family and supporters welcomed him home and helped him launch a new not-for-profit, This is Dementia, at a gala dinner on Grand Final Eve.

“I finished the ride on Thursday at the university who gave a great reception for three Victorian cyclists and it was fascinating to speak with their researchers who specialise in dementia,” Mr Locandro said.

“As a national level road cyclist taking myself, off-road was not quite what I am used to and covering 40 hours of riding over corrugated dirt roads was an enormous task.”

“My two close mates with me Jamie and Jeremy found if pretty tough going, they put themselves through a world of hurt both physically and mentally just to be there for me and support what we believe in.”

Using a mycause page on social media the trio posted a ride video every day to keep people up to date and raised almost $15,000.

“My aim is to use some of the funds to go towards a master plan to create a facility to enable people with dementia of all ages and all abilities to still be active and to facilitate rather than care for them,” he said.

This is Dementia was co-founded by Mr Locandro, Brittany Rose and Meg Curnow, who all have lived experience with family members and dementia.

Sam Mitchell, Brownlow Medallist and AFL premiership player, has been a Dementia Australia Ambassador for five years and was guest speaker at the launch.

“At a corporate level, hopefully you can make ripples through parliament but the people who are living with the disease right now aren’t actually getting immediate benefits,” he said. “These three founders from the Ballarat community are passionate about their cause so the least I can do is try and help them.

“My involvement is hopefully to help the ripples they are creating get a little bit bigger.”