NORTHUMBRIA BLOOD BIKES
March 2018 - Please feel free to print, copy, save or forward this newsletter to increase awareness of our charity!
Providing effective and timely transportation of essential blood and medical products Registered Charity Number 1166689
Do you have a mini moto that you no longer need, or is no longer roadworthy, that you would consider donating to charity? We’d like to hear from you. We take them to events for the kids to sit / play on after we have ‘branded’ them. If you can help, just please get in touch via the ‘contact us’ page of the website.
Gary Loader and Steven Laws, finally managed, to attend the cheque presentation at Frankland prison after snow delayed the original date effective and timely transportation of essential blood and medical products planned.Providing Our thanks extend to the Prison Registered Charity Number 1166689 Service Charity for their £1,000 donation
Back in December Durham Indoor Bowling Club held an event that successfully raised ÂŁ600 for us. Steven Laws and Gary Tait recently attended the cheque presentation with the group. Again that pesky snow delayed our original planned date.
Our newly appointed Young People Engagement Coordinator Richard Marshall and volunteer Malcolm Farley attended the CofE Leader Conference at the Marriott Hotel Gateshead. There was high interest from head teachers and we are looking forward to Providing effective and timely transportation of essential blood and medical products working with them in Registered Charity Number 1166689 the future.
We attended Heworth Golf for an Awareness Talk to the North East Jaguar Enthusiasts Club. Turnout was reduced, could have had something to do with it bleaching down with snow and roads were almost impassable. Those that attended were a good bunch who were interested in the working of NBB. Nice Before leaving Stuart Tait and Gary Loader were presented with cheque for £300 and collection tin containing £53.62p. Many thanks to all members who contributed, especially our own Stuart Tate who was instrumental in persuading the NEJEC to nominate NBB as their 2017 chosen charity.
Tesco Newton Aycliffe with Judith Russell, Duncan, Store Manager Helen Maynard and Community Champion Shirley Cormack. Volunteers collected £400.05 thanks to generous donations from their customers. Providing effective and timely transportation of essential blood and medical products Registered Charity Number 1166689
Providing effective and timely transportation of essential blood and medical products Registered Charity Number 1166689
This event is being organised for those of you who wish to help keep this volunteer service on the road, our fuel costs alone are running at £5,000 per month. Your donation will help to fuel our vehicles which carry vital supplies to the local hospitals in the North of England and replenish blood supplies, 365 days a year, to the fleet of Air ambulances serving the North East and Cumbria. (this is known as the B.O.B run (Blood On Board) and was the brain child of Dr Rachel Hawes to help save lives when time is a matter of life and death with your help and the generosity of the Henry Surtees foundation the B.O.B. run will continue. The route takes you to the furthest points of the Northumbria Blood Bikes operational area that riders will cover many times during the year (the total area covered by our team is (approximately 3,317 Sq miles). The route will showcase some of the best areas Northumberland, Durham, and Upper Teesdale have to offer - wild spectacular Landscapes, Moor and Coast, something for everyone! The event starts and finishes either at Autobite, Tyneside Auto Parc (NE3 5HE) or from St George Hotel, Tees Durham Airport (DL2 1LU) from 8.00am onwards. Once signed in you will be given an event card to complete on the route. A map will be available showing suggested roads to ride for spectacular views, but there are also four locations which participants must visit to complete their event card, which needs to be shown at the finish for you/your passenger to receive your commemorative badge. The entry fee for the event is £15.00 per rider or £20.00 if you also carry a passenger. All participants who successfully complete the challenge will receive a badge, and any individual who is successful in raising £360 or more will receive a special award badge in recognition of their efforts. There is also a special ELITE badge for the individual who raises the highest amount of sponsorship for the event.
To enter this year's event please visit: www.northumbriabloodbikes.org.uk/360challenge Providing effective and timely transportation of essential blood and medical products Registered Charity Number 1166689
We visited our friends at Northumbrian Water Ltd offices in Pity Me; where we had the pleasure of drinking coffee and speaking to a lovely bunch of employees from the Facilities Dept. They had the novel idea of allowing employees to use the NWL address to have their parcels delivered prior to Christmas. In exchange the staff were encouraged to make small donations to a collection for NBB. They presented NBB with a donation of £165. The donation was gratefully received on behalf of our charity. We have new vehicles joining our fleet. We’ll have the full announcement very soon. Once we have crossed the ‘t’s and dotted the ‘i’s on the paperwork we can let you know all their details. We are very excited for these vehicles so much so that one of the executive committee has ordered one for himself. With that clue you know it’s not me that ordered it as I’m the only female of the bunch.
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Providing effective and timely transportation of essential blood and medical products Registered Charity Number 1166689
Bronze recognition of contribution award badge recipients: Gary Pillans, Judith Russell, John Dixon-Dawson and Richard Marshall
Providing effective and timely transportation of essential blood and medical products
Registered Charitybadge Number 1166689 Silver recognition of contribution award recipients: Sean Jamieson, Frank Soulsby and John Watts
Above gold recognition of contribution award badge recipients: Alan Johnston and Graham Moor Above gold and red recognition of contribution award badge recipient: Ronnie Paton Recognition awards now include fundraisers. Photographs only include those that attended the March open meeting. There were others who earned badge but were unable Providing effective and timely transportation of essential blood andamedical products Registered Charity Number 1166689 to attend the meeting.
Providing effective and timely transportation of essential blood and medical products Registered Charity Number 1166689
Punch Drunk Comedy night at Cramlington Shankhouse was in memory of Owen Kerry. The event raised over £800. As well as Owen’s family raising funds for NBB they are encouraging #APintForOwen to get people to give donations of blood in their son’s memory. To date, they’ve raised more than £7,000 by hosting parties, selling A Pint For Owen wristbands and organising charity nights. We are very grateful that we have been chosen as recipients of Owen’s memorial fund. From the family’s tragic loss they are enabling us to be able to contribute to saving lives of others. The money raised will help to keep our fleet on the road. Thank you to everyone who has been involved! Providing effective and timely transportation of essential blood and medical products Registered Charity Number 1166689
John Watts delivered a talk to the Eastern Star Masonic order last evening. The Worthy Matron selected NBB as the charity for her year in the chair and we received a donation of £300. The husband of one of the members took the opportunity of giving me another £50 from his Lodge. It was a delight to meet the ladies of Derwent Valley Chapter.
One of the things we pride ourselves in is working with groups and associations. We've started working with students at Durham University and some of the members of Durham University Blood Donation Society have been helping at events. Two of them helped out at Tesco - thanks! It's great to have them involved in our work, and we hope that this continues, and develops with other student bodies. We raised a fantastic £596.90. Thank you to Lucy Thexton, Community Champion, and the team at Providing effective and timely transportation of essential blood and medical products Tesco for a warm welcome. Not Registered Charity Number 1166689 forgetting your generous customers.
(Above) As recipients of the Aviva Community Fund we were invited to their annual parliamentary reception in the House of Commons. Graham Moor, Fundraising Manager, and Kirsty Lawrence, Publicity Officer, ended up with a few mentions as Guy Opperman, MP for Hexham, stepped in as guest speaker. (Left) We were also invited by Aviva to The Monastery in Manchester for their special finale celebration event, compared by former World Cup Rugby star Will Greenwood. Graham Moor and Alan Ross attended and gave a short presentation to Providing effective and timely transportation of essential blood and medical products Registered Charity Number 1166689 the audience.
Updates from the Committee: Geoff Spencer (Training Officer) New riders since the last newsletter – No new riders New Drivers since the last newsletter – Steve Linfoot, Thomas Mears and Jason Cooper Annual assessment rides – Andy Lee, Alan Johnston, Gary Loader, Ria Burnett, Colin Granton, Alistair Neesham, Jamie Hayhurst, David Thornton and Nigel Barlow Annual Assessment drives - Ronnie Paton, Alan Johnston, Gary Annan,, Paul Paterson, Peter Mcewen, Steve Rawlings, Nigel Barlow, Peter Robertson, Alan Ross, Keith Arkle, Gary Loader, Raphael Hermann, Ian Mcneish and Joanne Hudson Rob Wilks (Membership Secretary) We had 22 new members join us last 3 months who have volunteered for the following areas: 4 fundraising, 10 as riders, 13 drivers and 5 controllers. 334 members failed to respond to the Survey so these members have been removed from the records.
Alan Johnson (Fleet Manager) Our new bike, purchased thanks to the Masonic Charity Foundation, has been named Durham Mason We have ordered our new car thanks to the Aviva Community Fund. We have purchased an automatic Škoda Octavia Scout.
Providing effective and timely transportation of essential blood and medical products Registered Charity Number 1166689
Steve Rawlings (Rota Manager) “Hi all Well we beat “the Beast from the East” A huge thanks to everyone who stepped up during the recent horrendous weather, the car drivers needed very little persuading to step up and cover the shifts, this meant that the riders stayed safe (and warm). It also meant that every shift was covered, not one shift was dropped, we didn’t have to suspend service or refuse jobs. I have been asked by one of the managers on NTGH Path lab to pass on their thanks; they said that they were amazed we turned up to collect that samples as their other couriers had refused to come out, even during the day time. He added that one particular sample from Hexham was urgent and the fact we managed to deliver it would have made a huge difference. Some interesting facts from the cold spell, we had 35 members doing a shift : 1858 hours on the road: Approx 252 Jobs completed: So a huge WELL DONE to everyone. There are quite a few things happening over the then coming weeks, starting with the extra pick up form NTGH to the RVI, we then have the scheduled collection form Battle Hill Walk in Centre every weekday evening, and more changes are coming to the “Support Shift which will keep you busy for the first hour or so. We also have a new base coming on line shortly, and are in the process of looking for one in the Birtley/ Washington area.”
Providing effective and timely transportation of essential blood and medical products Registered Charity Number 1166689
Kirsty Lawrence (Publicity Officer)
3 talks were held in February, 8 talks were held in March and 12 talks are being held in April. We have welcomed Steve Tulloch as our 2nd Talks Coordinator and Richard Marshall has taken on the role of Young People’s Engagement Coordinator. We would like to thank everybody that collected the Chronicle’s Wish Tokens. We are lucky enough to have received £562.99 which will go towards keeping our fleet on the road. The Money equates to 225 jobs carried out by our volunteers completely free of charge for the NHS. We are extremely grateful for the support by readers and to The Chronicle for this opportunity. I am still looking for a Newsletter Editor to take over producing each edition of this newsletter. If you are interested in the role please email publicity@northumbriabloodbikes.org.uk
Graham Moor (Fundraising Officer and Interim-Treasurer)
Sean Storey (Hospital Liason)
Alan Kinghorn (ICT Officer)
Brian Slassor(Secretary)
Ronnie Paton (Vice Chair)
Mike Thompson (Chair)
Providing effective and timely transportation of essential blood and medical products Registered Charity Number 1166689
FUTURE EVENTS FOR YOUR DIARY: Lots of things happening, and we need your help to support them! If you can help, even if only for a couple of hours, please contact us….information is at the bottom of this page. NBB members can register their attendance for most of these events on our website (login required). March
March
April
Friday
Saturday
Sunday
30
th
31
st
1
st
Bebside Inn – See page 10 of the newletter (Full details on the event calendar login and volunteers required)
March Saturday
31st
Community Ambulance Service Easter Fun Day 12pm-3pm Woodhouse Church and Community Centre, Bishop Auckland, FREE entry (Full details on the event calendar login and volunteers required)
April Sunday
1st
Durham Easter Egg Run Starting Point 8.30am-10.30am Tesco Durham Extra Store (Full details on the event calendar login and volunteers required)
April Friday
6th April
Saturday
14th
Tesco Newcastle Extra Door Collection 9am-5pm (Full details on the event calendar login and volunteers required)
Induction Meeting 09:00 to 12:00 (Please see events calendar for details) Introduction to NBB for new members (Register your attendance via our website, login required, Members > Forms > Register to Induction Session)
April
April
Saturday
Sunday
14
th
15
th
Homebase Hexham Door Collection 10am-4pm (Full details on the event calendar login and volunteers required)
April Saturday
21
st
Northumbria Blood Bikes 360 Challenge – See page 5 and 6 of the newsletter www.northumbriabloodbikes.org.uk/360challenge
www.northumbriabloodbikes.org.uk
FUNDRAISING HOTLINE:
facebook.com/northumbriabloodbikes
0191 364 3113
twitter.com/northumbriabb linkedin.com/company/2866951
- for any opportunities to increase our funding through sponsorship, locations for collecting tins, supermarket events etc…
Providing effective and timely transportation of essential blood and medical products Registered Charity Number 1166689