Steve Gorman, Director of Outdoor Activities, has been helping save lives by volunteering as a Blood Bike rider for the Leicester and Rutland Blood Bikes, delivering blood for the NHS.
“I joined as a volunteer a few months before the current Coronavirus situation,” says Steve. “We transport blood, blood products, pathology samples, patient notes, x-rays, patient scans, surgical equipment, donated breast milk – in fact anything where there is an immediate need to transport an item that will directly benefit patient care.”
Steve continues, “More recently we have started doing COVID-19 swab runs from the Glenfield Hospital Clinical Decisions Unit (CDU) to the Leicester Royal Infirmary (LRI), for analysis. I believe this will start to get even busier in the next few weeks as the amount of testing increases.”
The volunteers provide a free, “out of hours” courier service to public health bodies in Leicestershire & Rutland and they have also started a day shift from 7am to 7pm each day. None of this is paid and all equipment and vehicles have been either donated or funds raised to purchase them. They receive no funding from the government or the NHS.
Steve fits his blood bike duties in and around his job at Oakham and says, “It’s all very rewarding, delivering blood to the air ambulance and having the pilot and paramedics thanking you for helping them, as well as the doctors at the hospitals saying how much they appreciate your efforts. Also having police, fire and ambulances flash or wave when they pass. Everyone involved looks forward to doing their shifts, even nights!”
Steve also volunteers at the Leicester One Roof homeless charity and is a member of the Peterborough and Cambridge Advanced Motorcyclists, which has started an initiative delivering medicines for Wansford Medical Centre just this week.
If you feel inspired by Steve’s work and would like to find out more about becoming a Blood Bikes volunteer or make a donation, visit www.lrbloodbikes.org.uk/
