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South of Sydney, in Wollongong, a group of women have gathered to celebrate their club’s first birthday.
They call themselves the Social Women’s Intercultural Friendship Tricycling/Bicycling Club - or SWIFT for short.
The women come from diverse backgrounds, but today they’re celebrating one year of coming together under the banner of their unique cycling club.
Originally from Myanmar, Thit Tieu is the club's founder.
After surviving a cancer diagnosis 10 years ago, she created a support group to connect with other women.
"It started from the Sister Cancer Support Group that I founded in 2014 after my cancer treatment. I founded that group basically because multicultural women after their treatment are not getting any kind of help, although there are many that the government provides, they're not going and attending all those things."
Over the years, and through sharing stories, Thit realised there was still one thing missing.
"A lot of the ladies that come to our group are elderly, survivors and from multicultural backgrounds and they have no other outlet support that they can do it terms of sports because exercise is so important."
Dr Farhannah Aly was Thit's oncologist and is now the SWIFT club's chairperson.
"With offering the tricycles and companionship we encourage one another, we ride together, so that people feel they can build their confidence. And each week when we cycle, we feel the newer members are gaining confidence, they cycle further, they're enjoying themselves a lot more."
From a medical perspective, she says cycling is a good way to ease back into exercising.
"It's a great way of getting a cardiovascular exercise, that's gentle on the joints. It's great for general health benefits as well."
For the past year, women have been invited to culturally appropriate workshops to learn basic cycling and bike maintenance skills.
Dr Aly says it's helping to break down barriers.
“Cycling is not a cultural norm for some multicultural societies, especially for women, so that can be a little bit of a barrier. Other barriers are sort of feeling self-conscious or not having cycled when they were young so they don't have the balance."
Bryan Goddard runs a social enterprise teaching people how to ride bikes and has been running some of the lessons with the club. He says tricycles are a great option for beginners of all ages.
"People who are new to bikes benefit because it gets them out, helps them build confidence riding, and managing that speed, and breaking and pedalling, and all that stuff."
Nigar Dilber is one of the club's members and says despite having ridden a bike before, she was nervous to get back on.
"In my youth, some time ago I did, and haven't been on one for maybe 30 years, so initially I was a bit scared to get on thinking I wouldn't know how to ride it but like they say, you never forget."
The club has garnered support from the local and state government.
It's also teamed up with other sports clubs.
The women store their bikes and trikes at a local yacht club and receive maintenance support from other cycling groups.
Beyond the physical benefits, the women say the club has provided an important social support.
