WHEN Amy Gillett, a member of the Australian cycling team, was killed when hit by a car while training in Germany in 2005, her mother Mary Safe embarked on a journey that saw something good come out of a tragedy and helped her through her grief.
The Amy Gillett Foundation was established in 2006, giving Mary the impetus to start a campaign to raise awareness and educate communities about safe cycling.
She realised that not all parents ride bikes, so not all children learn about safe cycling at home, and older children learning to drive need to know about sharing the road safely with cyclists.
“I retired from teaching in 2006 and I dedicated the next 10 years to spreading the safe cycling message wherever I could,” Mary said.
“I wrote an educational safe cycling program titled ‘Remembering Amy for a reason’, and through my contacts in schools was able to run a pilot and establish the program.
“I weaved the story of cycling safety around Amy’s life from when she was little girl.
“For me it was about raising awareness of cycling safety.
“I knew the techniques to engage the children and got an enormous amount of satisfaction out of it. The process played a huge part in my recovery from grief.”
This passion saw Mary become a recognised, vocal campaigner for safe cycling, and play a role in lobbying for changes to the laws that protect cyclists.
She has led successful campaigns for legislative and behavioural change, including the A Metre Matters and Share the Road campaigns.
Each year, Mary promotes annual Amy’s Ride events, and officially opened the Amy Gillett Bikeway through the Adelaide Hills to encourage cyclists off the roads.
She was nominated for the 2017 Senior South Australian of the Year award.
Although no longer directly involved in the program, Mary is still passionate about safe cycling but has entered a new phase of her life, still contributing to the community.
She now volunteers at the Sir Samuel Way Building in Adelaide assisting people appearing in court, and is writing a book of stories on the lives of volunteers at the Women’s and Children’s Hospital.
