Rotary meets Blood Bikers – riding to save lives.
Warwick Rotary President Keith Talbot tried one of the Blood Bikes for size this week when Alan Brickwood and Martin Williams of Warwickshire and Solihull Blood Bikers (WSBB) came to talk about their work.
WSBB is a charity run by volunteers providing emergency cover out-of-hours to support the NHS free of charge, transporting bloods and essential medical items between hospitals and homes throughout Warwickshire and Solihull.
Covid has transformed their work as hospitals try to keep patients at home to reduce infections and achieve earlier discharges. Bikers are now delivering Chemotherapy drugs and prescriptions to critically sick patients at home reducing visits to hospital.
Over 250 deliveries a month transport bloods & plasma, spinal fluids, and tissue samples, mothers’ milk for premature babies, linking the National Blood Bank with the main hospitals across the region as well as supplying the Air Ambulance with bloods for call-outs.
WSBB have 3 high visibility liveried motorcycles, 2 small vans and a car. Motorcycles cover 3,000 miles per month and need to be replaced each year. Operating costs, amount to around £70,000 pa funded entirely from donations and they estimate they save the NHS up to £500,000 a year.
WSBB make no charge for their service and rely on donations from the public. If you can help in any way – as a driver, controller, sponsor or fundraiser, visit their website www.wsbb.org.
