A YORK cycle shop is planning to give away 162 bikes to NHS workers - and offering to repair their existing bikes -in a show of support during the coronavirus crisis.

Recycle York in Walmgate has received inquiries from all over the country as well as York since it launched the extraordinary offer.

Partners Bradley Mulhearn and Olly Hopwood said there were several reasons why they decided to do it, some personal and some business.

"The main is because I needed surgery in January on my eye," said Bradley.

"The treatment I received from every NHS worker I met was second-to-none and they saved my eye sight. I feel a massive personal debt to the NHS."

He said the shop shipped thousands of bikes overseas annually, and launched a campaign in February to give 200 bikes to people most in need in the local community.

It gave away a total of 38 bikes to local charities and organisations...'then Covid-19 turned up!'

He said:"The Government deemed it essential for bike shops to remain open and through these hard times we saw it as our duty to use our skills and services to help the people at the brunt end of Covid-19.

"We allocated the remaining 162 bikes plus free repairs to all NHS workers. We've had an overwhelming response to the campaign and the list of people wanting free bikes is currently around 60."

He said there would be a short wait for the bikes while they got them ready but if anybody was requesting a bike all they needed to do was call them or message them on Facebook, but they must have an NHS card, and the same applied to repairs.

Olly said: "We looked at what we could do to show our support and thought this is the least we can do." He added that the bikes could be couriered to NHS staff anywhere, with people just having to pay for the postage costs.