Blood Bike East – freewheelers for a great cause

Volunteering in community, sports or special interest organisations is such a part of Irish life that we almost take it for granted.

However, when you meet a group of men whose hobby is motorbike riding, it is a pleasant surprise to see how they have managed to create philanthropic value out of what they enjoy most.

Blood Bike East was set up about two yeas ago when Pat McCabe issued a call out on a motorbike forum to see if anyone was interested in joining him to deliver out-of- hours blood samples and breastmilk to hospitals in the Dublin region.

“Bikers are the first to get involved in any charity and this is a win for everyone,” he says. “We enjoy being on our bikes and we get to save the hospitals money by delivering blood for testing and breastmilk to babies in incubators for free.”

McCabe had already been aware of other Blood Bike groups around Ireland and in Britain and was keen to set up a unit in Dublin. “About eight or 10 of us got together and it grew from there. We had only a few calls in the first months but once the hospitals started to use us, they spread the word. We had 201 calls in September, which was the highest so far.”

12-hour shifts

The bikers volunteer for three or four 12-hour shifts a month, pick up their Honda Deauville from the depot, bring it home and wait for the call. There is another volunteer in charge of taking the calls from the hospitals and managing the three bikers on duty at the time, covering the north and south of the city and the country run.

The Dublin-based unit offers the service from 7pm-7am Monday to Friday and throughout the weekend. There are 85 volunteer riders in the group, of whom two are women.

The different Blood Bike units around the country link up to prevent excessively long journeys. So, for example, if a blood sample is being sent from a hospital in Galway to a medical laboratory in Dublin, a Blood Biker in the west takes it as far as Athlone, where one of the Dublin-based bikers meets him and brings it the rest of the way.

Michael O’Driscoll is another Blood Bike volunteer. “It’s about giving something back to the community and helping the HSE free up ambulances to deal with emergencies. Often, we don’t know what we are carrying. We just follow instructions and move quickly between the traffic. The most calls I’ve done in a night is four.”

Another volunteer, Frank McGurk, says: “I take great pride in doing this. It makes me feel good. We’re providing a service by delivering blood and other products.” Blood Bike East estimates that its work could save the health services as much as €100,000 a year.

Graham Dunne is also a volunteer rider.

“I love riding bikes and have been involved since it started,” he says.

“I’ve previously volunteered for the Tall Ships and the Tidy Towns. I see it as saving money for the health services. We get huge recognition from the public when they see us riding the bikes, but there’s nothing better than being out on a bike in the middle of the night with only the foxes and the binmen around.

“I remember one hospital staff member saying to me, when I arrived, ‘Oh, there’s my bike angel.’ ”

McCabe says the most poignant moment for him was when he delivered breastmilk to a ward in a Dublin hospital.

“I had to collect breastmilk in Cavan – which had come from the human milk bank in Enniskillen – and bring it to a tiny baby in a maternity hospital.

“It’s a great privilege to do something like this for a baby and the anxious parents. We enjoy being out on our bikes but knowing someone is waiting for what you’re delivering puts the human element into what we do.”

Types of call

The bikers will receive three types of calls. The first is a standard delivery of blood, tissue sample, X-ray or scan. The second is an urgent delivery of blood for testing, for example, for meningitis. The third is an emergency request for medicines or blood to be delivered as quickly as possible.

Each volunteer has to Garda vetted, to be over 25 with an unrestricted licence and to have an Advanced Drivers qualification from the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents. The latter is the civilian version of a Garda motorbike test in all road conditions on urban/rural roads.

Axa Insurance insures the Blood Bikes free and the Gem Motorcycle Workshop in Donnybrook, Dublin, services the bikes free.

The group fundraises for any other expenses such as high-visibility jackets and administration costs.

See bloodbikeeast.ie