North West Blood Bikes

A History of North West Blood Bikes

My first thoughts when I heard of them was:

Q: Blood Bikes? Who or what are Blood Bikes?

My answer and probably many of yours now is “They help the NHS by carrying URGENT supplies out of normal hours on motorbikes”

Q: “Why use motorbikes, they can’t carry much?”

A: No but what they can carry is urgent and emergency items such as Blood, Platelets, medication, Doctors notes, small theatre equipment, which is urgently required at another hospital.

URGENT being the operative word, because a motorbike can get through traffic even on Bank Holidays when some of the Motorways are like car parks.

Q: “Why not use Ambulances or their own transport?”

A: The answers are simple, the Ambulances are extremely busy helping injured or very sick people and most hospital Trusts can’t afford to keep their own transport drivers on duty 24/7.

Most Blood Bike groups work out of normal working hours, although there are one or two who work 24 hours every day, but most work in the evenings during the working week and 24 hours a day at weekends and Bank Holidays.

All the Bikes are paid for and funded by public donations, whether they be individuals or organisations like the Freemasons, Rotary, Round Table, Women’s Institute, etc., etc.

But, not to be outdone, some Blood Bike members fund their own bikes completely, which is all a case of “Giving something back to the Community”. Often by members who have either been helped by the Doctors and Nurses at NHS Hospitals or a family member has been helped by that same dedication. Some do it just for the pleasure of riding a bike and helping other people.

Blood Bikers are the salt of the earth, because they give so much of themselves to helping others. That is not unique I know, because there are many charities and thousands of people around the world who give up their time and often money to help others, and Blood Bikers are just the same, selfless individuals with hearts of Gold.

Q: So how and why did I get involved?

A: I have been a biker since I was 16 years old, starting with a scooter, then a real motorcycle, an Aerial Arrow, which cost me £12.10.00. That’s LSD (no not the drug) Pounds, Shillings and Pence, pre decimalisation, or pre 1972. The Aerial Arrow wouldn’t start, (that’s why it was so cheap) so I worked on it and got it to work and passed my test on it.

I have been riding a long time and had a bike since 1966 (scooter in 1965), but I’m not telling you my age (depends when you read this :)) and rode bikes in the Police which I was a member for 30 years. I have never been without a bike of one sort or another and still ride, but after retirement it became purely as a Blood Biker and then of course, just for pleasure. With the wife on the back we have ridden all over Europe on several occasions.

Q: “So, when did North West Blood Bikes Lancs & Lakes start?”
A: Officially 2nd May 2012.
Sometime around March or April 2011, I saw an advert on Television for Honda Motorcycles and being a Honda owner (there’s none better, in my opinion ) I took an interest in the advert and low and behold it showed a Blood Bike. This got me thinking and I made some enquiries only to find that there were no Blood Bike groups in the North of England or Scotland. I also found out that someone else in my area was thinking the same and I was given contact details, and this is what happened…….
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In August 2011, I met up with Graham Jones and Kevin Taylor and one other biker and it was then revealed that both Manchester and Liverpool were thinking of setting up their own independent Blood Bike Groups, known as NWBB Manchester & NWBB Merseyside. They’ve both changed their names since.

As a result it was decided that NWBB Lancs & Lakes should be formed by us, to cover the whole of Lancashire and South Cumbria, mainly because Lancaster Royal Infirmary (the northern most Hospital in Lancashire) was part of the Morecambe Bay Trust Hospitals, which includes Westmorland General Hospital (Kendal) and Furness General Hospital (Barrow) and the fact that there was no Blood Bike group in Cumbria at that time.

Several months passed whilst ideas and structures were tossed about and adverts for riders via NABB (Nationwide Association of Blood Bikes) were put out. In January 2012 Scott Miller joined Graham, Kevin & me, and Graham, and I made the first appointment with Lancashire Teaching Hospitals (Royal Preston Hospital and Chorley & South Ribble Hospital) for a meeting with various members of staff to pass on the ideas of what we wanted to do, and how we wanted to help.

There was, understandably, a great deal of scepticism simply because we wanted to do their out of hours transport FREE of charge. Up to this point the Hospitals were paying taxis or Courier services to do this. Obviously, the cost of a taxi or private courier was expensive, so their scepticism was, as I say, understandable.

One of our greatest allies within the Hospital staff was Maria Burn, Pre-Analytics Manager at RPH. Maria asked most of the questions about how we would do it and explained certain restrictions on the transport of blood and samples but was on our side right from the start. You’ve probably heard of MHRA recently because they approved the Covid vaccine, well we had to learn from them how to carry the goods we carry.

The next step was to set up a meeting with the Road Policing Unit of Lancashire Constabulary, to explain who we were and what we intended to do, fortunately there were still people within the force who knew me. There were also discussions about the legalities of using blue lights and sirens (Blues & Two’s or B&T’s) which the Police approved at that time.

We also met up with a man named Rob Winn, Lancashire County Council’s Road Safety man, who made sure our riding was all up to scratch and took the four of us through further assessments and some training for those who weren’t advanced riders, both Graham and I were Police Class 1 Advanced Riders, me a retired Police Officer and Graham a retired Paramedic motorcyclist, but we still required re-assessment, which Rob helped with.

By the end of April 2012, we had 4 liveried motorcycles with hi viz striping and 12 volunteer riders. We also had the idea that our volunteers could use their own motorcycles providing the insurance was adequate, which was somewhat different from the position taken by most other Blood Bike groups.

We also needed Controllers and fundraisers and a few people came on board to help.

Let me explain very briefly for those who don’t know us intimately:

Riders: They are the people who actually collect and deliver the items which require transportation.

Controllers: Basically anyone who has a phone and computer can do this whilst at home during their duty times, answering calls from each hospital through one number via a virtual switchboard and dispatching riders. “I must say it’s not for the feint hearted”:)

Fundraisers: The charity can’t operate without funds. Anyone can do this, it’s a case of giving talks to groups, standing at stores or events collecting money from the public, organising events, big and small and advertising the group in any way.

We then applied to the Charities Commission to become a Registered Charity, and before we could do this, we had to set up a bank account and have at least £5,000 in the account, which we just managed.

The scene was set, and we began operating at 6pm on 2nd May 2012 with Lancashire Teaching Hospitals and Haydn Williams (later to become a Trustee) was the first rider on duty from 6pm to 6am but didn’t get a call. He slept on his sofa all night in his bike gear.

Over the next few weeks and following a few phone calls from me to remind the hospitals that we were there, slowly the calls came trickling in, 2 per week, 10 per week and so on until in the first year, May 2012 to May 2013 we successfully completed 812 call-outs.

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Over several months I had meetings with other Hospitals, Lancaster, Southport, Ormskirk, East Lancs, Bolton, Wigan and Blackpool and slowly other Trusts began listening and looking at the Lancashire Teaching Hospital model with some speaking to Maria Burn at RPH. Again, slowly they started coming on board, except Bolton and Wigan for some unknown reason, although we do deliver Donor Breast milk to both.

We started delivering Donor Breast Milk to several of the Hospitals, (something Graham had been involved with prior to us setting up NWBB Lancs & Lakes) but this meant trips to Chester every time to collect the milk, so we decided to purchase our own freezer so we could have a central store, which Scott Miller (through his company) got at trade price. That freezer is now kept in the Neonatal Ward at RPH and distributed from there to our other 4 Trusts.

We also got more and more volunteers coming on board with us and began training Blues & Two’s riding for the advanced riders and purchasing more bikes because the fundraisers started getting good sized donations including money from the Lottery (£20,000 over 2 years), Black Tie Dinner Dances, donations from the hospitals, organising events, including a day each year at 3 Sisters Race Track in Wigan, etc.

Members came and went, but there has been a core of members from a very early point who have stayed, Riders, Controllers and Fundraisers. Many who left did so because of work or family commitments, or they were moving out of the area.

By the time you read this we have 400 members, and have reached 100,000 call outs, many more than any other Blood Bike group. We cover approximately 3,000 square miles, help 5 Hospital Trusts, (13 hospitals) and numerous cottage hospitals and some Doctors surgeries. We are currently averaging 1,250 call outs per month.

We grew so large and cover such a large area that we have had to form 5 areas, although separate they all work together, and each area has a Manager and at least one Deputy Manager, to care for both the riders and the bikes. Each Area works slightly differently because some have regular runs and some don’t, but all with the same aim.

The hospitals we help are University Hospitals of Morecambe Bay (Furness, Kendal and Lancaster) Blackpool, Southport and Ormskirk, Chorley & Preston, and Blackburn & Burnley. We also assist in relays up and down the UK.

Likewise, the Controllers have a Manager as do the Fundraisers. All in all we have nine Managers all working for the same aim.

It has taken time to get to where we are, but thankfully, due to the dedication of all members, past and present, we have got to this stage and are not only the largest and busiest Blood Bike group in the UK, but we are all so proud of what we’ve achieved we quite rightly think we are the best.

We have helped other Blood Bike groups too in setting up in their own area and we have assisted with relays from Dumfries to London and Porton Down. Preston to Cardiff. Preston and Blackburn to Leeds and Sheffield, Preston to Birmingham and many more.

We have won or been awarded several awards by the hospitals, and in 2015 we won the NHS North West Supplier of the Year Award, but by far the greatest award was in June 2016 when we were awarded the Queens Award for Voluntary Service (The MBE for a charity group) and my wife Denise, and I were invited to the Queens Garden Party, and I got invited into Number 10 to meet David Cameron, whoopy do!
In 2022 myself and our Headquarter/Fleet volunteer manager Paul Pain were both awarded the Queens Jubilee medal for Voluntary service. A personal hounour of course but one we share with the whole of our membership that make the operation such a success.

All of which was because of the selfless work by all the members of this wonderful group of volunteers, none of who are paid.

At the moment the Committee consists of 5 people and there are 3 Trustees:

During the years of operating there have seen several people who have done a great deal for the group including Riders, Controllers, Fundraisers, Managers and Committee members, past and present, and without their time and input the group would not have evolved to the efficient unit, it is today, nor would the group be held in such high esteem by the hospitals.

On a personal note and no doubt shared by others, what are my thoughts and what drove us to do all this?

I’m a Biker and contrary to what many people think, my purpose in being a Police Officer was helping people first and foremost, (but of course locking baddies up,) and when I retired, I felt the need to carry on doing the former :

About the group? I can say quite categorically the neither Graham Jones nor I ever, in our wildest dreams thought it would be as successful as it has turned out. We have so many new friends and colleagues now.

Problems & heartaches? There have been quite a few, the worst without doubt was when one our Riders, Russell Curwen, was killed in a Road Traffic Collision in May 2018.

What about the future? I wish I had a crystal ball, but as far as we can see we will continue doing what we do. We are always up for more volunteers, but in certain areas there are so many Riders it’s hard to get on the Rota, whereas in other areas like West, which is Southport & Ormskirk we have had to introduce car drivers.
Funds? Like everyone else donations have not completely dried up although the Coronavirus Pandemic hasn’t helped.

So, for now we just keep doing what we do and hope it continues to help. Thank you for reading this.

Paul Brooks – Co-Founder and former Trustee & Rider member

You Can Ride Your Own Bike

Controllers.