What it's like to be a blood biker: It gives me a sense of pride

This hard-working group gives our hospitals a helping hand by ensuring these deliveries arrive safely and promptly wherever they are required.

For blood biker Steve Hawkes it’s an incredibly rewarding role. “It gives you a great sense of pride and achievement knowing that you have helped somebody who is very poorly at a time when they need it the most,” he tells Weekend.

Steve has been a volunteer with the Staffordshire, Shropshire and Cheshire Blood Bikes charity for the past three years.

It is a cause that is close to his heart having experienced first-hand the work of the NHS.

“Unfortunately my father passed away from cancer back in 2000. During his treatment I could see how hard the NHS staff worked to look after him, and he also received many blood transfusions.

“Three years ago when I heard about the blood bikes, I thought it would be a good way to give something back to the NHS and help other patients who are in the same awful situation, by volunteering some of my spare time,” he tells us.

When he is not on his bike, Steve works as a design engineer for JCB in Uttoxeter.

“We are all volunteers and I fit my blood bike duties in around a full-time job. But a typical duty is 12 hours, being either a day shift or a night shift. During that time, I will be based at home, but have the Blood Bike at my house, and must be ready to go should I receive a call.

“The call will come from one of our volunteer controllers, who would tell me which hospital I need to collect from and deliver to, the controller then keeps track of my progress, to make sure I make the delivery and get home safe.

“The delivery could be for wide variety of items, but predominantly it is either a blood test sample, to enable a patient to get their test results quicker, or a box of blood units needed for an operation or A&E,” explains the 41-year-old who lives in Hednesford.

It’s not always smooth sailing for the team when they set out on their missions. “The ride itself can be challenging at times, especially with a Saturday lunch time trip into Birmingham for instance.

“It is very busy with traffic, and drivers are not always concentrating as they should, in a rush to get to the shops or home maybe, and not always fully aware of us trying to get through.

“Our bikes are covered in high-vis livery to make us as visible as possible, and all of our riders have an advanced motorcycling qualification, which all helps to minimise our risk. But you quickly learn to expect the unexpected. I would urge car drivers to check their mirrors and give way to a blood bike because they could be on a urgent delivery to help a very poorly patient,” says Steve.

During the past three years of being a blood biker, there have been many memorable moments for Steve.

“One which stands out for me would be when a box of platelets, which cause blood to clot, was needed at Queens Hospital in Burton, for a pregnant lady close to giving birth.

“She had a condition where her blood did not clot, so she could not go into labour. I collected the platelets from Birmingham and delivered them to Burton where a maternity nurse was waiting for me. Normally that would be it for us but on the occasion I was asked if I would like to meet the expectant mother. So I was taken into her room, where she was receiving the platelets, and we were able to have a short chat. I later found out that she had given birth to a perfectly healthy baby,” he tells us.

The charity works hard to raise awareness of the work it does as well as funds to keep the service running. “A lot of people don’t realise that we are all volunteers, and nobody gets paid. We are a charity and rely completely on donations to keep the service running. The service runs 24 hours a day, and our area across the three counties covers 3,500 square miles.

“As well as blood, we also carry donated breast milk for premature babies, which we collect from a human milk bank and deliver to where ever it is needed.

“Sometimes these deliveries can be further afield so we will relay the delivery with a rider from another blood bike group across the country,” explains Steve.

It costs around £80,000 per year to run the service and keep the bikes on the road.

“We spend around £20,000 per year just on fuel alone, £6,000 per year on tyres, so as you can see it soon adds up with all the other servicing and running costs.

“We attend many events and hold supermarket collections around the region to raise funds and awareness.

“We also have a speaker team who go out to groups and businesses to give talks, which have resulted in some excellent corporate sponsorship and donations.

“Plus, we have been awarded several wonderful grants. All of which contribute to keeping our service on the road,” Steve tells us.

The charity has found that the service is in great demand from hospitals across the region with the number of deliveries made it each year continuing to rise.

“The NHS staff at the hospitals we serve are extremely grateful for the serve we provide and demand is growing all the time as more hospitals and departments want to use our service. This time last year, around the charity’s third birthday we completed our 5,000th delivery – we’ve now completed 9,500 deliveries.

“Meaning last year alone, we almost completed the same amount of deliveries which we completed in the first three years, which just shows the scale of the growth and demand for our service,” says Steve.

Debbie Jones, support services care group director at Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust (SaTH) says Steve and the team provide a vital service.

“On a regular basis we need to transport samples urgently, between Shrewsbury and Telford, and also from here in Shropshire to Birmingham and beyond. In the past it has been quite difficult, out of hours, to get those samples moving quickly, so it has made a huge difference to us to be able to rely on blood bikes.”

“There is certainly times when the quicker we can get results back, the better the outcome for the patient, so blood bikes are helping to save lives and, at the same time, they are saving the NHS lots of money. We very much appreciate all of their efforts.”

• To find out more visit shropshireand staffordshirebloodbikes.wordpress.com