UK Based Motorcycle Volunteering Service Helps Deliver Medical Goods (Like Blood and Organs) to Hospitals

Merseyside & Cheshire Blood Bikes (MCBB) are a group of volunteers who want to make a difference in the medical scene.

(All images taken from MC Blood Bikes)

With a constant need to quickly transport medical goods and supplies, yet with high costs to also consider, hospitals have it hard. This is where the volunteer group comes in, providing a professional,  reliable and readily available service to the hospitals in Merseyside and Cheshire.

Founded in 2012, the Merseyside and Cheshire Blood Bikes have been delivering medical supplies via motorcycles, 24/7 and every day of the year, all for free. This means that the UK’s National Health Service gets to save $454K (SGD) every year.

The MCBB aims to “relieve sickness and protect health by the provision of emergency transport of urgently needed blood, donor breast milk, drugs, human tissues and other medical requirements between hospitals / hospices and blood transfusion units, blood banks primarily but not exclusively in the North West region of England.”

The concept of blood bikes have been established in the UK for more than 40 years. On April 1st, 1969, a youth community action group named Freewheelers was set up to encourage young bikers to use their riding skills to provide a fast and reliable transport service to local hospitals.

Now, the Merseyside and Cheshire Blood Bikes volunteers are doing the same.

All the volunteers use specially adapted bikes as well as their own motorcycles to provide assistance to the health authorities. These kind hearted people are full motorcycle license holders with at least a year of riding experience, with a clean license and no accidents. A good number of them are also ‘Advanced’ riders with the adequate qualifications.

The organization has also grown significantly since its founding in 2012, as the number of bikes grew from 1 to 8, and with more than 70 volunteers to help out with the delivery of medical supplies.

Recently, UK’s Steve Morgan Foundation - a charity that offers funding to various services, non-profit relief organizations and charities - has also donated a brand new Yamaha FJR1300 to the MCBB.

“We are incredibly grateful to the Steve Morgan Foundation. The bikes are serviced for free by volunteer mechanics, but we have to buy the parts and on the older bikes this can be incredibly expensive. This new bike will be more reliable and save us money,” said Simon Dennett, volunteer and chairman of MCBB.

“By using motorcycles our riders can drastically reduce the time taken to test samples in readiness for diagnosis. As our service is 100$ free the cost savings over the year is phenomenal with all savings going back into patient care.”

Through their sincerity and hard work, the MCBB volunteers have also helped to carve out a more positive image of motorcyclists in general.

According to their website, “people who see blood bike riders collecting money, or walking in to a hospital ward are often amazed that the groups exist and walk away impressed with the work that they do.”

Bit by bit, and slowly but surely, the group has managed to change people’s impressions of bikers. Not their primary purpose of volunteering, but a very happy side-effect nonetheless.

Read more about this fantastic volunteering service here.