At our meeting in March, we were delighted to welcome Chris Williams who introduced us to Blood Bikes, which in our local area covers Lancashire and the Lakes.
The service started in May 2012 and comprises a team of volunteers who provide transportation of urgent and emergency items for the NHS Hospitals in the area. These items include blood, pathology samples, donor breast milk, patient records, medical equipment – in fact anything that can be carried by motorcycle.
Chris, who is one of the Blood Bikers, told us the service is available all through the night, and 24 hours per day at weekends and Bank Holidays. They use their own bikes or specially liveried bikes (which have red markings, to distinguish them from the police (blue markings) or paramedics (green markings). The 400 riders over Lancashire and the North West are supported by over 40 controllers who manage the communications to the team on the roads.
In the 9 years since inception, North West Blood Bikes Lancs and Lakes has become one of the busiest in the country – if not the world – covering over 500 calls each fortnight.
This was a fascinating evening and we were all in awe of the amazing and vital service performed by volunteers – a number of us also expressed our sadness that we were passed the maximum age to train as bikers!!
We invited members from the local clubs to join us for Chris’ Zoom presentation and we were delighted to welcome our friends from Liverpool and Crosby.
To find out more about Blood Bikes, please check out their website here.