John's Great North Run

In September, I will be running the Great North Run to raise money for Nationwide Association of Blood Bikes (NABB). I have set a target of raising at least £200 to support NABB.

Since its inception as an umbrella organisation in 2008, NABB has successfully promoted and been actively involved in the start-up of numerous independent Blood Bike groups across the UK and the Republic of Ireland. With only a handful of areas not yet covered by a Blood Bike group, our vision of providing a ‘coast to coast’ service is rapidly becoming a reality.

Every year, the 32 NABB member group’s 3,300 advanced qualified unpaid volunteer riders responded to over 100,000 requests for rapid transport from 262 hospitals in the UK. These requests were to transport anything from whole blood (red cells), platelets, plasma, serum, surgical instruments to patient’s notes, X-rays, Human donor milk and MRI scans. These requests ranged from urgent (Priority 2), through to emergency (Priority 1) life threatening scenarios. Although these groups have saved a significant amount of money for the hospitals, they are primarily acknowledged by their client hospitals as providing a professional and high-quality service. The fact that they do this free of charge is just the icing on the cake.

The volunteers are all people like you and me, who give up their time to help make a difference to the lives of others.

You can find out more at bloodbikes.org.uk/

Thank you for your support!