A Great Night
On Friday 18th October 2024 Blood Bikes Cumbria held a Gala Dinner to celebrate the tenth anniversary of our charity being formed. We were very pleased to be joined by Bill Bertham (and his wife Marion) who was the founding member and the reason we are all still here today.
We would like to thank Cloud Competitions for agreeing to be our main sponsors, providing not only two prizes for our auction but covering a number of expenses for the evening. We hope they enjoyed the event as much as we did.
From May 2024 when our ticket sales opened (with our web page designed by DJ WebDesign) Blood Bikes Cumbria Members, friends and local companies started buying tickets to attend a drinks reception and three course dinner at The Halston. Entertainment was provided by The MustangZ Trio followed by DJ Gary Devlin. Thank you to staff from Atkinsons Building Contractors, Borg Woodwork Design, Cartmel Shepherd, Dodd & Co Lloyd Bikes, Maryport Storage and Premier Glass Wigton for giving up their Friday evening to join us.
A charity auction expertly hosted by our Patron, BBC Radio Cumbria’s Steph Finnon raised a fantastic amount of money and we would like to thank Alice Fashions, Appleby Manor, Ben Birchall, Borg Woodwork Design, Carlisle United, Cartmel Shepherd, David’s restaurant, Dodd & Co, Eden Golf Club Infinity Print Solutions, JJ Group, Lloyd Bikes, The Near Boot, Nuclear Transport Solutions, Pioneer Foodservice and Stanwix Tandoori for donating “lots” to be auctioned.
We are very lucky to have also had support from Complete Engineering Services, Innovia Films, Reay’s Coaches, Saint and Co, Thomas Armstrong Holdings Ltd and Vikki Swift Hearingcare who have made donations to cover the event costs and allow us to maximise our fundraising.
The whole evening was captured by Jay Gilmour Media who, with his colleague Josh gave his time for free and we look forward to sharing these professional photographs over the coming weeks.
Every member of our charity is a volunteer, and we receive no payment for any of the deliveries we do so we are very proud and grateful to announce we have raised a total of £6,296.41 which with an annual fuel bill alone of £22,266.00 are funds we vitally need to keep our vehicles on the road 365 days per year.
Without the financial support of community groups, individual members of the public and local businesses, we would not be able to continue to provide the free out of hours medical courier service to the Integrated North Cumbria NHS Hospital Trust and the Great North Air Ambulance Service helicopter stationed at Langwathby which we have delivered daily since 2015.
