Recently the Devon Freewheelers co-ordinator for Southern Region, Les May, gave a presentation to the members of Torquay & District Soroptimist International.
The Devon Freewheelers are a group of advanced riders who have come together to offer their time, skills and expertise, free of charge to provide an out of hours emergency response courier service to the NHS.
They transport various urgent or emergency items by means of specially adapted marked motorcycles. Some of the important supplies they transport include Blood Platelets for transfusion, blood samples for testing, human tissue samples, urgent or emergency medication between hospitals and pharmacies, small items of medical equipments for surgical teams, any service that may benefit the South West Transplant Services which may even include patients notes on CD ROMS. These supplies must be transportable by motorbike and be of an urgent or emergency nature.
This service is provided at no cost to the patient or the hospital that has requested their assistance. All costs in providing the service are covered by public donation or corporate sponsorship, shaking and rattling tins on street corners in their spare time, or even on occasion, they have put the fuel into the tank themselves. Most of the Freewheelers work full time during the day, then in the evening and weekends stand by their machines, ready and willing to take the call that may take them off into the night in all weather conditions to save a life. Their Motto is ‘Riding for Life’.
The Soroptimist’s gave Les a warm welcome and after an informative and very entertaining evening were delighted to be make a donation of £175.00 to help this charity continue with this vital service to the benefit of everyone in Devon.
Les thanked the group and said he looked forward to seeing the service grow, he finished with the most important thing that is said to all the volunteers “Thank you and stay safe.”