Woman's 2,000 mile cycle spelling out 'kindness'

A woman has completed a 2,000 mile (3,219km) cycle challenge across the United States on a route in the shape of the word "kindness".

Nahla Summers, 46, who lives in Yarm, pedalled a two-seater quadricycle for about 40 miles a day since the start of May from Minnesota to Iowa.

She founded the community interest company Sunshine People, which encourages acts of kindness, following her journey with grief after her husband Paul passed away while on a charity bike ride.

Summers said "exhaustion has definitely set in" but it was "incredible" to know her journey had sparked conversations about kindness.

She said the final day brought the "biggest challenges" with weather conditions, road closures, bike issues and exhaustion, but that it had been the "incredible effort of people coming together" that kept her going.

"I've had a couple of wobbles, but generally, I've got the attitude after doing all of these challenges - if you tell yourself you can, you generally will," she said.

Summers regularly challenges herself to raise awareness of the "positive impact of kindness", including completing a 5,007 mile (8,058km) route across the UK on an ElliptiGO while also spelling the word.

She was inspired by people's kindness when her partner died aged 44 in 2012, she said.

"What I understood was that in our darkest times, and our most challenging times, it's always human connection that will pull us through, without question."

Summers, who is originally from Sturminster Newton, said a "whole host of people" on the route had also helped her out.

"On day two, I was held back by headwinds and really had no idea what I was going to do," she said.

She was in the middle of farmland and was unable to get the bike moving on the challenging route.

"A lady stopped, who I had passed about 10 miles (16km) previously on the highway, and she pulled up in a car with a friend and she asked me if I was okay," she said.

The family offered her a place to stay, food and support throughout the remainder of the challenge.

"It's been a story after story after story of kindness and human connection," she said.

Summers completed the challenge in Des Moines, Iowa, on Wednesday.

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