SERV Sussex blood bike volunteers will be at ASDA Brighton Marina on 10 October

Volunteers from SERV Sussex^1,2,3,4,5,6, the charity that transports blood and other urgent medical items for NHS hospitals in Sussex, will be at ASDA Brighton Marina on 10 October from 8am. They will be collecting donations, and visitors can sit on one of the charity’s blood bikes.

The charity was formed in 1981. Its volunteers transport blood products, X-rays, patient notes and time-critical laboratory samples between hospitals and other medical facilities. The hospitals it regularly serves include the Royal Sussex County in Brighton. Blood usually comes from the National Blood Service in Tooting, London. The service runs from 7pm to 6am on weekdays and around the clock at weekends and on bank holidays, and the NHS pays nothing for it.

SERV Sussex has no paid staff. Volunteers mostly use their own bikes and cars and pay for their own fuel. The charity also keeps a small fleet of marked bikes and cars, paid for by donations, for nights when there are more requests than the scheduled volunteers can cover. In winter its car and 4x4 drivers keep blood moving on the coldest nights.

It wants more volunteers. Riders and drivers typically do one night a fortnight on call, and new riders pass an observed ride with an independent assessor, then a familiarisation ride around the hospitals. Phone controllers take the hospitals’ calls and send out riders. They cover the same 7pm to 6am shift and don’t have to stay awake, only answer when the phone rings. The charity also needs administrators for a few hours a week, and fundraisers to run supermarket collections and stands at bike events. Its volunteers are aged from 21 to over 70.

The next Brighton & Hove collections are at ASDA Hollingbury and Sainsbury’s West Hove on 14 November.