Minutes matter: Dame Catriona Williams is using Contented to plan a 3000-mile fundraising handcycle.

The mission is huge, and keeping everyone aligned is critical.

Dame Catriona Williams DNZM is a “wheelie”, athlete, and advocate preparing to cycle across the United States to raise awareness and funding for spinal injury rehabilitation. She’s a wonderful human, all-around legend, and fiercely committed to the cause: making independence and regained movement a reality for millions living with spinal cord injury.

Cat was one of New Zealand's leading international equestrian riders when a riding accident in 2002 left her a C6/C7 tetraplegic. Since that life-altering moment, a cure for paralysis has been Cat’s dream. She founded CatWalk to support researchers in finding a cure for spinal cord injury.

As part of that mission, Cat has completed the New York City Marathon and climbed to Everest Base Camp on a handcycle. Now she’s leading Team Connect USA - a group of friends from New Zealand, Australia, the UK, and the USA handcycling nearly 3000 miles across the USA.

"My goal has never changed; I want to dance on my own two feet with [my husband] Sam again," Cat says of the adventure. "Significant change requires significant effort, and our ride is definitely going to be that."

Coordinating a cross-country cycling mission takes a lot of meetings and fast-moving decisions. Keeping everyone aligned is critical.

Cat is not a person who tolerates wasting time, so she uses Contented to record all the meetings, from one-on-ones to larger group sessions, and share summaries and actions immediately. For a small team where time and energy are finite, streamlined communication like that is essential.

"Minutes matter to me," Cat says. "I'm not wasting time recreating notes. When we use Contented we record, make a few tweaks to the outputs, and they’re sent to everyone."

Rather than assigning someone to take notes, Cat can be fully present in the conversation and trust that the key points will be captured and shared.

"We’re loving it. I'm using it for all our meetings. Being able to concentrate rather than having someone take notes has been great."

Cat also records personal reflections in the Contented app, capturing her thoughts and experiences from the day while they are still fresh. She describes it as a kind of daily journal, prompted by advice from a practitioner working with her on her recovery.

At Contented we're incredibly proud to play even a sm all part in this epic fundraising journey. To donate to Team Connect USA and learn more about the campaign, visit teamconnectusa.org. The trip begins in Carlsbad, California on December 30, 2026. Cat will handcycle east through a route that includes nine states and ends in Jacksonville, Florida on March 7, 2027. Then the team rides south to the World Equestrian Centre in Ocala for the Longines League of Nations.