Freewheelers Emergency Voluntary Blood Bike Service
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Mission Statement
Freewheelers EVS was founded in 1990 and is a registered charity, which offers an out of hours and free of charge courier service to the NHS. Our slogan "Riding for Life" describes our operation perfectly. We ride to play our part in saving peoples lives and we ride to allow the NHS to redirect money that would otherwise be spent on taxis or expensive couriers, but more than anything else we ride because we love it. In 2008, in recognition of the dedicated work of our volunteers, we were delighted to receive The Queen's Award for Voluntary Service. This is the highest honour that a voluntary group can receive, equivalent in status to an MBE. Our service is provided by volunteers as fundraisers, riders and telephone coordinators and we depend entirely on public sponsorship and donations. We operate from 19:00 through to 07:00 week days (Monday to Thursday) and 24 hours at weekends (19:00 on Friday to 07:00 Monday) and 24 hours a day on bank holidays.
About This Cause
Our service to the NHS hospitals, hospices and Air Ambulance bases is provided free of charge and is funded entirely by public donation and sponsorship. We transport blood, pathology & microbiology specimens, neonatal breast milk, patient notes, and other medical supplies. In 2022/23, we made over 7500 deliveries, riding more than 220,000 miles. Freewheelers EVS operate a fleet of motorcycles each equipped with high-visibility markings. If our service did not exist hospitals would be required to use taxis or commercial couriers. Freewheelers EVS is run entirely by volunteers. All our riders hold an advanced motorcycling qualification, such as the advanced riding test by RoSPA, or IAM RoadSmart. We also have a team of volunteer fundraisers and telephone co-ordinators who keep our service running 365 days a year including the supply of blood products to the two air ambulance charity bases in our region for Wiltshire and Great Western which is having a huge impact on pre hospital care they can provide. During the Covid pandemic, we adapted our hours of operation to meet the demand running 24/7 during the first lockdown and many volunteers taking on extra activities to ensure the service we provided continued. During 22/23 we returned to our regular operating hours and continue to play a key role as we enter 2023 and our 33rd year operating as a charity