The Scottish 'Blood Bikers' who have ridden around the world in a month saving lives

They command a fleet of 19 motorbikes and travelled the equivalent of around the world every month during the Covid pandemic in the fight to save lives.

Now Dumfries and Galloway Blood Bikes [DGBB] have been recognised with a special nomination for the Scottish Health Awards, which this year are sponsored by The Scotsman.

Featuring in the 'readers’ choice' category, Blood Bikes is one of several nominees suggested for the public vote, opens from Friday, October 4.

A strong field ranging across the healthcare spectrum, the field is packed with nominees doing life-saving work every day, including paramedics, health visitors, nurses, those working in addiction services and volunteers.

Dumfries and Galloway Blood Bikes perform a life saving service, free of charge | G E Photography

‘Going above and beyond’ is a phrase used repeatedly to describe the nominees. Their actions include preventing a mental health patient running onto a busy motorway, comforting children while their mother lost her fight for life in the next room, and climbing through a window to administer life-saving Naloxone, as well as working tirelessly day in, day out as part of a regular shift.

Now it’s up to Scotsman readers to decide who wins the award.

Crucial to the work of the NHS, patients and communities is the contribution made by volunteers like those working for emergency service charity Dumfries and Galloway Blood Bikes, who transport urgent blood, samples and medication 24/7, 365 days a year, free of charge.

Entirely funded by public donations, with members giving their time free, DGBB save the NHS hundreds of thousands of pounds annually along with many lives - efforts which were rewarded in 2018 with The Queen’s Award for Voluntary Service.

Starting with no funding, no motorbikes and only 15 members, DGBB was set up in 2014 by Dumfries-based former police motorcyclist and family liaison officer David Hook and his ex-colleague Bill Bertham using their own bikes and fuel.

Today the charity has a fleet of 19 bikes, nine cars and 160 dedicated volunteers. The team of riders/drivers, shift controllers and fundraisers respond to more than 150 calls a month, speeding samples, medication and equipment locally and to Glasgow, Edinburgh and across the UK.

On call round the clock, DGBB riders undergo advance training to carry up to 300 samples at a time and also deliver urgent medication to patients’ homes.

Not only does this cut NHS taxi/transportation charges, the speedy delivery of test samples leads to faster diagnoses and treatment, quicker patient recovery and saves lives.

A Dumfries and Galloway Blood Bikes rider/driver collecting a sample to be transported to the laboratory for testing, speeding up response times for NHS patients. Pic: DGBB | DGBB

Mr Hook, chairman/trustee ofDumfries and Galloway Blood Bikes, said of the charity’s vital work: “This year we’ve done over 900 runs and since we started, nearly 13,000, an estimated 1.8 million miles in ten years. During Covid we travelled the equivalent of going round the world every month because our workload tripled.”

“A lot of the runs are from Dumfries to Glasgow and Edinburgh and previously that would have been sent by taxi or post. Regularly the results are back later that day to pass on to the patients.”

Would Mr Hook say this translates into helping save lives?

“Definitely,” he said. “On top of the daily runs, we get calls at any time, sometimes for a patient in theatre and we can be straight in, pick up a sample for testing, then the diagnosis can have a positive impact on treatment.

“Also, for organ transplants, a blood sample [from the donor] has to be analysed in Edinburgh and Glasgow within a short period of time and that is into the labs within an hour and a half. By the time the rider is on their return journey, up to 15 people have been contacted to travel to hospital for life-saving treatment. Also top priority are samples for meningitis, to know which treatment to use.”

DGBB

As well as saving lives, DGBB save money. “Everything we do is free of charge, we have no paid staff whatsoever and everything is done through fundraising,” Mr Hook said.

Of DGBB’s 160 volunteers, around 65 are riders and drivers who come from all walks of life.

“We’ve got an ex-procurator fiscal, teachers, medical staff, NHS staff, retired people and people who work full time,” he said. “We had a teacher finish school at three o’clock. At half past he picked up the sample at Dumfries, and by half past seven, eight o’clock he was in Coventry with that sample.”

All DGBB’s riders and drivers are trained to advance standard and in how to care for packages en-route.

The charity's 19 bikes, mainly Yamaha FJR 1300s, and nine cars - all bought through fundraising or donations - are stored in various garages and at health providers in the region.

“The riders are all bike crazy,” Mr Hook said. “So they get to ride the bike, but it’s done with the purpose of helping people and the community we live in.”

With large areas to cover - the shortest journey is a 150-mile round trip - the riders are accustomed to coping with whatever the weather throws at them. It was DGBB who transported staff into hospitals, including a surgeon required to do life-saving surgery, in their 4x4 ex-paramedic Skoda Kodiaq Scouts when 2018’s Beast from the East led to snow blocking roads.

“Our riders go out in all weathers at all times,” Mr Hook said. “They work from home and will turn out sometimes two or three times a night, and conditions can be pretty wild. But as a motorcyclist in Scotland, you get used to being wet.”

Dumfries and Galloway Blood Bikes volunteers celebrating being awarded The Queens Award for Voluntary Service in 2018. Pic: DGBB | DGBB

“We’re like one big family. No-one’s more important than anyone else. Dumfries and Galloway Blood Bikes is made up of four vital elements - drivers and riders, controllers, fundraisers and public support, and without any one of those elements we could not operate.

“It’s an amazing thing to volunteer for, and knowing the difference it makes to people’s lives is the reward.

“If anybody had said to me ten years ago that we would now be operating the way we are, I’d have laughed at them. We’ve got an amazing team of volunteers who really do step up and keep the wheels turning.”

Dumfries and Galloway Blood Bikes dgbloodbikes.org.uk

Read David Hook’s Vision to Fruition blog here

The nominees for the Scottish Health Awards Readers’ Choice Category are:

Dumfries and Galloway Blood Bikes

Dunfermline ambulance station, Scottish Ambulance service, Fife

Julie Conaghan, Health Visitor, NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde

Liam Kyle, Paramedic, Scottish Ambulance Service, Lothian

Drew Carr, Retired Paramedic/ Vaccinator, Scottish Ambulance Service, NHS Ayrshire & Arran

Joan Rutherford, Community Clinical Nurse Manager For Health Visiting, NHS Borders

Gemma Burdett, Trainee Advanced Nurse Practitioner, NHS Borders

Graham Lawson, Mechanical Engineer, St John’s Hospital, Livingston NHS Lothian

Kelly Cockburn, Clinical Education Lead, NICU (Ward 40) Ninewells, NHS Tayside

Heather Robb, Midwife, NHS Tayside