One-wheeled adventurer raises funds for association by touring France as a carer

Caregiver in La Rochelle, Jerem Ada leaves for a charity tour of France. He will travel aboard his One Wheel, a motorized balance board, to raise funds for the Etoil’Clown association, which organizes visits by clowns to the hospital.

Jerem Ada has set himself an extraordinary challenge. This caregiver from La Rochelle wants to do a Tour de France, not on foot or by bike, but of course on his One Wheel.
On a daily basis, the caregiver only moves with this board which rests on a motorized wheel.

Inspired by skateboarding and surfing, the One Wheel appeals to the balance of its pilot. “It’s like therapy, when you’re on it, you’re really in a kind of wavering”explains the traveler, also president of the LRWD by ASPTT association in La Rochelle.

On April 15, on this board still little used in France, the athlete will therefore hit the road, with one objective in mind: to raise funds for an association.
Designed as a sporting and charitable challenge, this Tour de France should benefit Etoil’Clown, an association which organizes visits by clowns to the pediatric departments of hospitals in La Rochelle, Rochefort, Niort and Angouleme. For each of the kilometers traveled, one euro will be donated to them: objective, to travel ten thousand kilometers, and thus collect ten thousand euros.

An employee of the La Rochelle hospital in the cardiology intensive care unit, Jérémy met the hospital clowns by chance.

When I found out that they were doing that, in addition to my project of representing an association, I said to myself that Etoil’Clown was the perfect association for that.

Jerem Ada – caregiver

France 3 Atlantic

Like more and more travelers who make trips for charity, Jérémy asks for the financial support of those who believe in his project. To create emulation and raise the kitty that he put online, he planned to feed his social networks daily. By recounting his day-to-day journey with his phone, he also wants to introduce One Wheel to his supporters.

But this nice gesture has a price: to be able to perform the 128 steps planned, the caregiver took unpaid leave for six months. And to compensate for the financial losses linked to this long break, he had to anticipate and work hard. “I made the decision to work overtime, I did a lot of it, it cost me physically, nervously, morally.”, he explains, tired.

Jeremy continues: “When I leave, in six months, I will have worked 300 overtime hours, which will essentially finance my fixed costs. This money will not be used to finance the project, but will allow me not to find myself in debt when I return”.

On the site of his kittyhe explains having collected around 7500 euros thanks to his extra work, carried out for the most part at night.

To finance the rest of his trip, the man is still looking for sponsors. Whatever happens, with the support of his colleagues, Jerem Ada, as he called himself on his social networks, will therefore set sail on April 15 from La Rochelle. Return planned for the fall, on October 15th.

Meet him with this report produced by Florent Loiseau and Morgan Plouchart in La Rochelle (Charente-Maritime) below: