An inspiring story about Connie Kirkland who, at 80 years old, was still keeping fit by cycling, was on the front page of The Canberra Times on this day in 1978.
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Connie had to give up walking around inner Canberra near her Braddon home months earlier because her calf muscles started to knot up. She decided to travel by bicycle instead and found it much easier on her joints.
"I can get around like a young one again," she said.
"It has been very comfortable since I put a special big sprocket with 18 teeth on the back wheel."
The great-grandmother learned how to ride a bicycle as a child just after she learned how to hang on to a horse, and she pedalled regularly around Canberra after World War II up until around 1967.
"I had to give up then because the traffic was too dangerous," she said.
"But now, with all the bicycle paths in the area, it seems quite safe again."
Connie used the bicycle to visit her daughter - 3km away in Ainslie -and every morning to pick up her papers in Braddon.
Connie also delivered almost 300 bulletins to the Reid Uniting Church every Sunday morning.
