Blood Bike West team expands fleet to include van
Emergency voluntary service Blood Bike West has once again expanded its fleet of vehicles, with the addition of a new van, sponsored by Northgate Vehicle Hire.
Ireland’s first and pioneering blood bike service is constantly seeking ways to improve and broaden the scope of the service it offers, and the new van will provide numerous benefits, not only to Blood Bike West, but to many who require urgent medical supplies.
The charitable organisation comprises a number of motorbike enthusiasts who volunteer to provide an emergency, out-of-hours, free service to HSE in the West of Ireland, collecting and delivering medical items such as blood, breast milk, medicines and other urgently-required supplies from all over the country.
“Since we launched our last bike, we’ve gotten busier to the point that we’ve taken on more volunteers as riders. We’ve also had an increase in the range of stuff that we bring. A couple of times we’ve been presented with something that physically wouldn’t fit on a motorbike. And there’s also safety to consider – especially in the winter when conditions would be too dangerous for a bike. But there would still be a need to move stuff,” said PRO of Blood Bike West John Moylan.
With this in mind, Blood Bike West set about finding a partner to address the issue, and thanks to the new van, the organisation can ensure that the demand for its volunteer services will continue to be met, with enhanced levels of service.
The van came at just the right time for the charity; with the winter months closing in, volunteers can keep their own safety in mind as they make their way from North to South, East to West, collecting and delivering whatever is needed to save lives.
A van was always in the pipeline, to make things easier to transport and to allow volunteers to transport larger items and in larger quantities. But thanks to Northgate Vehicle Hire, [http://www.northgatevehiclehire.ie/] Blood Bike West have managed to get a van and haven’t had to pay a penny.
“That allows us to move those items but also to be in use when a motorcycle physically can’t be done, for whatever reason – safety or otherwise,” said Mr Moylan.
“But it also gives us a little bit of extra capacity, because when our other bikes are despatched, we now have an extra string to the bow. It has multiple benefits for us. It’s something that we’ve been aspiring to for a while, but now it’s come to pass.”
Other vehicles on the Blood Bike West fleet have names. The most recently launched bike, for example, was named Juliet, after baby Juliet Quirke, born in 2014. In the course of the pregnancy, Juliet’s mother Gabriella was in need of a specialist transfusion before Juliet was born and as part of that process, Blood Bike West was required to perform an urgent run of blood samples to Dublin.
The resultant medical care that followed that run ensured that baby Juliet was born healthy to mum Gabriella and dad Alan, thanks to Blood Bike West rider Mick Carty who was on call at the time and made the trip efficiently and successfully.
“We haven’t decided to put a name on the van just yet. We may do in time, but we just haven’t yet. We did retire one bike this year as well, which has to be replaced between now and spring and we’ve actually picked a name for that, but because the van came about quicker than we had expected, we haven’t put a name on it just yet,” said Mr Moylan.
Blood Bike West, like any charity, thrives with the support of the public. Members of the public who would like to donate to Blood Bike West can do so via the donate button on their website http://www.bloodbikewest.ie/ or by texting the word BLOOD to 50300.