About Blood Bikes Cumbria

Blood Bikes Cumbria was the dream of our founder Bill Bertham. He set about looking for like minded people in May 2014. He was astounded by the number of people in the Cumbria and South of Scotland area that answered the call. A committee was formed and they had their first committee meeting on the 28th May 2014. Their inaugural meeting was held on the 8th of June. One week later they had their first bike given to them, a Honda Pan European ST1100 by Lakeland Motorcycles in Pica, Cumbria.

They started their first contract with North Cumbria University Hospitals NHS Trust on the 1st July 2014. That was just a two month period from idea to operational; this must be one of the quickest start ups in the history of the blood bike organisation. No one in the group gets paid, every penny they get goes into running the group.

They are servicing the hospitals in the North of Cumbria, all the hospitals were very impressed with the presentations given to them and the professional standards that the group set themselves .

The group is totally self funded and all the members give their time freely, they make no charge for their services. Because of this they will save the hospitals thousands of pounds over the year; this will enable them to fund other services within the hospitals.

All the riders are assessed for their riding skills and only the best are able to ride for the group on the liveried bikes.

The group is always looking for volunteers to join them as riders, drivers, controllers or fund raisers, anyone interested should contact them.

Sponsors are always welcome regardless of how much they can contribute, it is a very costly business running the group so any help will be appreciated.

Nationwide Association of Blood Bikes (NABB)

Blood Bikes Cumbria is a member of the Nationwide Association of Blood Bikes (NABB).

The Nationwide Association of Blood Bikes is a Registered Charity (1139714) that represents a group of established charities operating across the UK and Ireland.

NABB’s principle aims are to:

• Aid the formation of new groups
• Assist member groups achieve their objectives
• Define a minimum professional operating standard for all members
• Raise awareness / sponsorship for the benefit of all NABB members.

Each NABB member performs a similar service, using motorcycles (and sometimes cars) to provide an out-of-hours ‘medical essentials’ courier service to hospitals and other health institutions within their area. The charities carry urgently needed medical items such as blood, biological samples, medical notes, x-rays and scans. The service is offered free of charge to the NHS and all members are unpaid volunteers.

The existing NABB members reach more than 85% of the UK’s population and parts of Ireland, with further expansion planned, which will extend blood bike coverage to 54 million people.

Will your next journey save a life? Ours could.

For more information please visit: Nationwide Association of Blood Bikes Website