In a word – nothing! Our volunteers, and hundreds like them around the UK use their skills to support the NHS and earn nothing (apart from the satisfaction of a job well done) in return. This is fundamental to the Blood Bike movement, and has been since the first group formed in 1962.

No, we are an independent charity which is completely self funding, which exists to support the NHS and Hospices.

Absolutely nothing.  Since the beginning of the Blood Bike movement, as well as looking to save lives and improve patient outcomes, one of the outcomes that we also want to see is that we save the NHS money – which they would have otherwise spent on taxis, couriers etc.  Our Charity has saved the NHS locally hundreds of thousands of £’s since we started operating, and this money of course can then be spent where it should be – on patient care.

Please click on the “Want to Volunteer” page for more information.  There are many ways in which you can help us by volunteering – you don’t even have to be able to ride a motorcycle or drive a car.

We primarily offer an out-of-hours (evenings, weekends & bank holidays) courier service, ensuring deliveries at times when conventional services are not available. Additionally, where our dedicated volunteers are able to assist, we strive to extend our support during daytime hours as well.

We have four teams operating from Plymouth, Torbay, Exeter and North Devon – so we can provide full coverage across Devon – and in fact nationwide by working in relay with other groups in each county through our membership of the Nationwide Association of Blood Bikes.

The service provided by Blood Bike Groups has evolved. We provide a complete emergency out of hours courier service to the NHS. Yes, we still move Blood for transfusion – but that is now a small part of our work. Other things we move include Donor Human Breast Milk, vital for premature babies, microbiology, pathology and histology samples, medical equipment, medicines – even patient notes where these are still held on paper. Anything that is URGENT, needed to treat a patient, out of hours – we will consider.

No, because there has been a change in the legal position on this, and it is now deemed that Blood Bike Groups can not use these – hence why they have been removed/disabled on our fleet. Even if the law changed tomorrow, and it was allowed again, we wouldn’t be wishing to use these in this Charity. Riding a motorcycle in all weathers, in the dark, in traffic is risky enough, and using Blue Lights and Sirens needs a LOT of training, we value our volunteers safety and would not want to subject them to increase the risks that they face.

It is a requirement that Blood Bikers hold an Advanced Motorcycling qualification. This is required by the NHS, by the Nationwide Association of Blood Bikes, and also our insurers. Riding in all weathers and at night means that our riders skills must be as good as they can be. In fact, even if you aren’t looking to volunteer – taking some Advanced rider or driver training gets our vote. It will help make you a safer, more progressive rider or driver, and our Chairperson never minds admitting that moderating his riding style, and using the skills that he was taught saved his bacon more than once. These skills are re-assessed on a regular basis too.

In addition, our riders, driver and controllers complete an “Introduction to Blood Biking” course, which covers off handling hazardous products safely, safe handling and movement of blood and blood components, and medicines. Elements of these courses are provided for us by key NHS and MHRA staff, ensuring that although we are volunteers, we operate to highly professional standards.

You can view our charities details on the Charity Commission website – our Registered Charity Number is 1180510. If you want any more information about how we operate, or wish to meet us and view our accounts, we have a policy of complete transparency and are always happy to meet with potential supporters, volunteers or interested members of the public and are happy for them to visit with us and view any supporting documentation they may wish to review.

We relish the opportunity to speak to such groups, and build awareness in the public domain about what Blood Bike groups are, and what we do. Please contact us if you would like to arrange a talk. We do not make a formal charge for doing this. All that we ask is that we are allowed to take a collection at the end of the talk so that anyone who wants to support us is able to do so.

Whilst we do have some volunteers who prefer to use their own bikes and cars, the vast majority of our volunteers use the charities “fleet” motorcycles. At the time of writing this page, we operate 15 fully liveried Blood Bikes, and we also have three response cars too. The cars are used by the riders in poor weather – but we also have an active group of volunteer drivers who cover jobs using these just as the riders do.

It is the charities preference that volunteers use the fleet vehicles to cover jobs, and these come with a Fuel card funded by the charity.  However, some volunteers prefer to use their own cars or motorcycles, and we do have a policy which allows them to claim fuel expenses if they wish.

Unlike some groups, we operate a mixed fleet of bikes.  Each of the four teams has a number of bikes, and we aim to have a number of different bikes for volunteers to use.  This is driven by the need to consider the different type of work we do.  For example, smaller bikes are better for use on work contained within the cities, in comparison to the larger machines with better weather protection that we use for the long runs.  We also seek to be inclusive as a charity, and to ensure that we have bikes for riders of all shapes and sizes!  In the motorcycle world, one size definitely does not fit all.  We have everything from BMW R1200RT’s down to Honda NC750’s and BMW F800 bikes on the fleet.

We raise our funds predominantly from the public, through collections, online via Paypay Giving Fund.  You may often see our volunteers outside supermarkets and garden centres collecting money for the charity.  We do receive some support from some corporate sponsors (please see the “Our Sponsors” page) and also some support through grants too – such as the National Lottery Community Fund.  The key thing with our charity is that EVERY penny raised is spent on providing our free service to the NHS.  We can do this as we have no paid staff or trustees.  So every penny is spent fuelling, insuring and maintaining our fleet of vehicles.

Whilst the Charity has Trustees who look after financial management and compliance, the day to day decisions within the charity are, wherever possible, made in conjunction with our volunteers. For example, a new piece of work that may involve more call outs will be discussed before we agree to take this forward. Each team has regular social meet ups, during which new ideas and any suggestions are discussed and passed back to the committee for consideration. We never forget as a charity that without our volunteers, we wouldn’t have an operation at all, and so we pride ourselves on listening to their views.

The Charity was formed on 1st November 2018, by three people who had experience of volunteering for a similar organisation elsewhere. They wanted to form their own group and run this their own way, and the charity started in Plymouth covering a handful of jobs a week. The charity was then taken over by it’s existing Trustees when the existing ones retired, and a period of rapid growth followed – firstly with a team being formed in Barnstaple, to service North Devon District Hospital, and then in Torbay in November 2021. The most recent addition was the opening of our Exeter team on 6th March 2023. We have gone from having half a dozen volunteers to over 90, and now carry out 10-15 callouts every DAY – saving the NHS over £250k per annum.

This is a good question – but the same could also be asked about the Air Ambulance, the Lifeboat service and many other essential services that are now provided by charities.  However, the public can be assured that as long as there is a need for our services here in Devon, South West Blood Bikes will endeavour to be here to provide it, with the support of the community who make it possible for us to do this.