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Blood Bikes Members Are So Devoted It'll Make You Cry

Members of the Blood Bikes are common people like you and me, and they love riding their motorcycles. Still, there is something very uncommon about them, a thing that commands the utmost respect.
Blood Bike 1 photo
Photo: nationalgeographic.com capture
These fellows are volunteers who deliver all sorts of medical supplies whenever they are solicited, especially during the night, on holidays and bank holidays, or at night. Basically, these brave men step in when the hospitals in their area have no other way to send or receive medical supplies that are urgently needed.

As one of the Blood Bikers says, hospitals in need have limited options when it comes to moving those supplies from one place to another. Calling the police, using one of their own ambulances, or paying a cab to do the delivery are the only ways.

Blood Bikers do this for free, and save hundreds of thousands of pounds each year. They say that the money they save can get local hospitals new or better-trained employees, new equipment, and so on.

Around 1,500 Blood Bikes members are organized in 25 groups

The volunteers are organized and function like any similar institution does. There are around 1,500 bikers in the Nationwide Association of Blood Bikes (NABB), in 25 groups, and their ranks are growing.

Riders from Ireland, Australia and Canada are also interested in setting up local Blood Bikes "chapters." In the UK, the NABB received the Point of Light Award from the Prime Minister and even won a series of legislative advantages.

With proper training and donning special riding gear, the Blood Bikers can use sirens and lights, and can even run red lights when carrying time-sensitive materials, National Geographic says. From blood, donor milk, spinal fluid samples to medicine, surgical instruments and other equipment, rabies and other vaccines, the Blood Bikers will haul anything wherever needed.

In 2014, the Blood Bikes went on more than 39,000 missions, but quantizing the exact impact they had on the public health system is most likely impossible. Costs can only be estimated when thinking about the equivalent transport costs, but there is so much more to these modern day heroes.

Just think of the ambulances and police cars that are free to respond to other emergencies, all the medical professionals that can also tend to more important cases, and all the lives they can therefore save. THESE are hard to quantize.

"Blood biking" can be traced back to the '60s in England, when several motorcycle riders, a group that was not exactly enjoying the best reputation, decided to do something their communities would appreciate. The idea caught on and is growing, thankfully. Now, if you meet one of these amazing fellows, you can certainly bow in respect, or get them a coffee or tea, because they're also working in wintertime.

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