Catriona Williams completes the Cycle4Caroline fundraiser for spinal research alongside Tommy Howe.
The planets are aligned – this week we recognise the International Day of Persons with Disabilities – and Catriona Williams has just returned home from Scotland after an amazing feat most able-bodied people would have balked at. She has taken part in an 11 day, 1,100km bike ride from Scotland to London as part of the Cycle4Caroline fundraiser in support of British Eventing Support Trust and Spinal Research. In wintry conditions and in the middle of Storm Bert, they averaged 100km/day, one was 151km, and she raised approximately £10,000 ($NZ21,000) in the memory of double five-star winner Piggy March’s sister-in-law who died after sustaining spinal injuries two years ago.
The journey took them across top level (4*L and 5*) eventing venues: Blair Castle in Perthshire, Bramham Park in North Yorkshire, Burghley House in Lincolnshire, Blenheim Palace in Oxfordshire, and Badminton House in Gloucestershire.
It’s been a crazy nine weeks since Catriona first heard about the fundraiser, when it popped up on her social media feed. With thanks to ACC, she had just received her second hand-cycle which had better suspension than the old one she’d had for 19 years.
“I looked at it and thought, Hell Yeah, I need to do this…Sam and I have a thing now…if it’s not a Hell Yeah, it’s a no. I did a bit more research and found the website and I wrote to them. I said, I don’t want to crash the party but I’d really, really love to join you. You and your charities are why I do what I do every day.
“My friend Jonelle (Price) vouched for me and said, ‘She’s okay. She’s a good Kiwi. If you can put her in, put her in’. So, they came straight back to me and said, ‘we can’t believe that you want to join us on this crazy adventure’. And that’s how it all came to fruition,” says Catriona.
At the time, Catriona was at home in Wellington, so her first challenge was to get herself, her friend/carer/nurse (one person) and her bike to the UK.
“When you’re in a wheelchair nothing’s easy. I can’t just get on a plane, get over there and get on a bike and cycle. I had to take someone capable and fun with me and obviously I needed a bike that fitted me. All of these things add to the cost, yet you’re trying to raise money and not spend money. So, a lot of logistics had to be ticked off pretty quickly.”
Catriona reached out to Mainfreight who agreed to support her in her plan to get to Scotland.
“I was very, very thrilled that Mainfreight came on board to sponsor me by freighting my bike to Scotland and home again. They helped me make it happen.”
Ironically, Catriona’s adventure has occurred almost 22 years to the day since she suffered permanent spinal damage after a fall from a horse while competing at an event in 2002. As founder of the CatWalk Trust, over $10 million has been raised for Spinal Cord Injury research into how to get people in wheelchairs back on their feet again.
“For me, the bike ride was about raising awareness of spinal research. Then it was up to me to make sure that my horse – my bike – was in order and I was able to do the cycle. One thing that was really special was getting the Spinal Research UK team in touch with the NZ CatWalk team because we’re after the same goal. It’s about supporting world-class spinal cord research and the conversation we started many years ago. Now there’s an even a stronger relationship there, and they know that we’re backing them 150%,” she says.
Catriona Williams completes the Cycle4Caroline fundraiser for spinal research along with Ian Stark, and friends Hugh and Gabby Rance.
Catriona was with a group of fellow equestrians who raised over £282,000 (NZ$608,000). The ride was organised meticulously by Tom March and featured a number of UK Olympians and top equestrians, including British Eventing Support Trustee Ian Stark.
“One of the highlights was definitely having Ian Stark in the team. He’s got a total of 19 World and Olympic medals to his name. At the age of 70, to do what he did takes an enormous amount of training, commitment and grit, and to see him sliding around the roundabout on our final day was scary, to have him walk away with merely a dislocated thumb was a big relief,” says Catriona.
And if you ask Catriona how hard the ride was, she gives it to you straight.
“It was no pony club ride. This was Burghley and Badminton rolled into one. Every day we got up and we had to put our heads down and bums up, and every day was a challenge.”
And would she do it again?
“I absolutely would! The only difference is I’d love to have my husband with me,” says Catriona.
Catriona was inducted into the ESNZ Hall of Fame in 2023 for her outstanding contribution, not only the equestrian sector, but also to the greater development of the sport and its participants throughout the country and across the globe. You can find out more about the CatWalk Trust at: https://www.catwalk.org.nz/ and about Cycle4Caroline here: https://www.cycle4caroline.com/.
Catriona along with UK equestrian friends who completed the 1100km journey.