Midland Freewheelers Blood Bikes
​
A blood bike is a motorcycle used to courier urgent and emergency medical items including blood, X-rays, samples, drugs, and documentation between hospitals and other healthcare facilities helping to save lives.
​
a network of largely independent registered charities, whose members are all unpaid volunteers, provide blood bike courier services in collaboration with their local healthcare authorities.
​
The first blood bike volunteer group to be established was the Emergency Volunteer Service (EVS), formed in 1962 in Surrey, England, by Margaret Ryerson and her husband. In 1969 the Freewheelers youth community action group formed in Stevenage which initially served hospitals in Stevenage, Luton, Dunstable, Bedford and Hitchin. These original groups are no longer operating, but other groups emerged that provide similar services.
​
In 2010, one group made deliveries at a cost of around £25,000, paid for by charitable donations, which according to NABB saved the NHS over £120,000. There are no exact figures for how much blood bikes save the NHS annually, however NABB estimates that it was approximately £1.4m in 2016.
​
Each and every penny raised will go directly to cost of running the service, help with fuel, insurance and maintenance.
​