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Life-saving volunteer motor-cyclists

Dave Shipley is part of a volunteer motorbike charity which transports vital blood supplies and
medical equipment for hospitals.

When he’s not working hard warehouse manager, Dave Shipley spends much of his spare time travelling around the north west of England on his motorbike as part of a volunteer army which transports vital blood supplies and medical equipment for hospitals.

Dave joined Merseyside and Cheshire Blood Bikes six years ago, and is now part of a team of 70 registered volunteer riders who use their own time and fuel to deliver blood, plasma and drugs from hospital pharmacies to hospices and patients in the Merseyside and Cheshire area.

Dave explains:

‘Between us, we average around 500 runs a month. We do the runs a taxi, ambulance or paramedic car might normally do but without the cost to the NHS, saving thousands of pounds a year’

The group also has eight special bikes which are funded by charity donations and are decked out in orange and yellow for identification. Three have blue lights to use when transportation is a matter of life or death.

‘It costs £5000 a year to keep each of these bikes on the road including insurance and maintenance,’

'The volunteer group also transports milk and special formula to premature baby units in the area and estimates that over 50% of cancer patients treated at the Clatterbridge hospital have been supported by the Blood Bikes volunteer group ‘and they just don’t realise it!’

adds Dave.

Further information

You can support this life-saving work by making a donation to Merseyside and Cheshire Blood Bikes via their Facebook group: https://www.facebook.com/mcbloodbikes/

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