The Emergency Voluntary
Blood Bike Charity, Whiteknights Yorkshire Blood Bikes, are appealing for new
riders to ride their newly donated Blood Bike.
The new BMW R1250RT Blood Bike
is on duty this weekend and was welcomed into service by representatives of the
motorcycle’s donors and staff from the Transfusion Team at York Hospital.
Members of the Pocklington
based, Widows Sons Masonic Biker Group have been instrumental in raising nearly
twenty-thousand pounds to provide the voluntary Blood Bike service with a new
bike for North Yorkshire.
Andy Hunn, of the Widow Sons
Group presented Whiteknights’ North Yorkshire Manager, Andy Richardson with the
keys for the new motorcycle at York Hospital.
Mr Hunn said: “We’re very
proud to have purchased a new Blood Bike which will operate in the areas
covered by York and Scarborough NHS Foundation Trust. Whiteknights Volunteer
Blood Bikers provide a marvelous service totally free of charge to hospitals
and hospices in our region.
“They have been so busy
during the Pandemic, having ridden thousands of miles, that the Blood Bike for
our area needed replacing. We raised £1000 in our local group then achieved
further funding through other Masonic charitable foundations including the
Freemasons Charity Foundation of Yorkshire North and East Riding.”
Whiteknights Yorkshire Blood
Bikes North Yorkshire Manager, Andy Richardson added: “We’re delighted to have
a new bike available overnight and twenty-four hours at weekends to transport
urgent blood samples and medication in the York area. We are now looking to
recruit more motorcyclists to volunteer their riding skills to benefit the NHS.
Senior
Pharmacy Technician at York Hospital, Cat Reed added:
“We only
call Whiteknights when the medications and Controlled Drugs require urgent
delivery. We know they’re all volunteers and so we treat the Blood Bike service
with the respect and value it deserves – you do a brilliant job!”
The Charity states that for
every, free-to-the -NHS journey made out-of-hours by Whiteknights’ volunteers,
the charity saves the NHS from expensive alternate transportation costs.
Pictured releasing the Blood
Bike into service is Andy Hunn, Whiteknight Andy Richardson, and Biomedical
Scientists, Victoria Graham and Tyla Kirk.
For further information
contact Whiteknights through their website, www.whiteknights.org.uk or through their Facebook page at
Facebook.com/yorkshirebloodbikes.