Blood Bike Rich

Yamaha FJR 1300. Funded by The Morrisons Foundation

Our blood bike RICH is named after Richard Bransby. Richard, from Stafford, was a friend of several of the SSCBB volunteers and an avid SSCBB supporter. He had already been involved in the donation of funds to the group from the Stafford Round Table. He told his family it was his mission to provide the charity with a blood bike. An extremely popular young man with a great personality and lots of friends so family and friends were in shock when Richard passed away by his own accord on November 4th, 2017. He was 27 years old. A collection made at his funeral service was divided between SSCBB and the mental health charity MIND. Richard’s mother, Angela Green, then took over her son’s mission and, very poignantly, on the second anniversary of his passing, Ange presented SSCBB with blood bike ‘RICH’ mainly funded by her immensely generous donation. RICH is a Yamaha FJR 1300.

Close family members gathered to meet the new bike before it went into service. An emotive time for them, and yet, a celebration too.

What people say about us

“The blood bikes are vital to getting our life saving faecal transplants to critically ill patients with C. dificile infection”

Professor Peter Hawkey, FMT Service Lead, PHE Public Health Laboratory Birmingham

“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 to get those samples moving for us.”

Debbie Jones, Support Services Care Group Director Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust

“The voluntary service the blood bikes offer us has been instrumental in widening the scope of our FMT service across the country and ensuring costs are a low as possible for the NHS”

Dr Vicki McCune, FMT Service Manager PHE Public Health Laboratory Birmingham

“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”

Debbie Jones, Support Services Care Group Director Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust

“We are so grateful to the volunteer riders who give up their time to courier blood products and urgent samples for testing between our hospitals and the regional NHS Blood and Transplant (NHSBT) centre in Birmingham. Every minute counts when it comes to helping seriously-ill and injured patients and being able to call on the blood bikes round the clock helps us to provide safe, effective treatment and transfusions.”

Paula Gardener, Chief Nurse Burton Hospital Trust (covering Burton, Lichfield and Tamworth)

“We very much appreciate all of their efforts and the support they give both SaTH and the wider NHS.”

Debbie Jones, Support Services Care Group Director Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust

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