Community appeal: ‘I have no way of getting to work now and very little money, when they took my bike they took my lifeline’.

Jennifer Layton’s bike was her lifeline, her only means of travel not only to get to work but to get out and about until some callous thief stole it yesterday.

“I have no way of getting to work now and very little money, when they took my bike they took my lifeline, my bike was part of me.”

Jennifer is a single mum who lives in Dagenham. She had visited Romford yesterday to help her sister buy Halloween sweets for local children and went by bike.

She told the Havering Daily:

“I rode to Romford to meet my sister. It was the first time I have ridden my bike since my operation and it is my only means of travel, I can’t really afford anything else”.

Jennifer had an operation for Endeometriosis and a cyst on her womb and it has taken her three months to recover.

“We went to get Halloween items and I parked my bike outside of the NatWest in Romford where I normally park my bike. I left it with my usual heavy weight lock and removed the seat. I went back to check on it every so often to make sure it was okay.

“My sister and I were just about to go to Asda when I went back to collect my bike and saw that it had been stolen. I reported it to the police straight away and went into the bank to ask if they had any CCTV cameras outside that might have caught the thief as he stole it”.

Jennifer is heartbroken, her bike was one of the biggest parts of her life, as she describes ‘it was part of her’. She has ridden London to Brighton bike races to raise money for charity and goes everywhere on her bike, it is after all her only means of travel.

“I cycle to work, it is my only means of travel, I have modified that bike over the years to suit me, I love my bike, it is my lifeline. The same way people buy cars, I bought my bike. Now I have no way of getting to work. I am having to borrow money from my daughter to help me.

The Havering Daily has sent up a crowdfunding page to help Jennifer buy a new bike so she can get to work. We are looking for the community to help us in our bid to get Jennifer a new bike. Please help Jennifer get a new bike, she is heartbroken and has no other means of getting to work now. Let’s unite as a community and get Jennifer a new bike.

Please donate by clicking here: gf.me/u/wbic98