Blood Bike charities stand to lose £200,000 a month during Coronavirus

It has been revealed that UK Blood Biking charities could collectively lose between £170,000 and £200,000 a month according to the Chairman of the Nationwide Association of Blood Bikes (NABB), John Stepney.

Despite many groups now providing voluntary 24/7 support, the groups have been forced to shutdown much of the fund-raising activity, which relies heavily on social gatherings due to the Coronavirus crisis.

“Most of the revenue we get is from people coming together; whether that be in the form of a talk to people like the Women’s Institue, a black-tie charity dinner or standing in places like supermarkets and football stadiums collecting donations,” Stepney explained.

Still an active member of Oxfordshire, Buckinghamshire, Berkshire and Northamptonshire Blood Bikes (SERV OBN), Stepney said: “In a good month, my local group would expect to raise around £5000. If we extrapolate that across the 34 groups in the UK, then that is a monthly figure of £170,000 per month lost to us, collectively.

“Some groups won’t collect as much as £5000 and some will do better than that,” the Milton Keynes rider continued. “I would be comfortable in saying that the Blood Bike community could be losing between £170,000 and £200,000 per month due to the lockdown.”

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Operating as charities across the UK, Blood Bikers provide voluntary transport services between hospitals and to some Air Ambulances – supplying everything from blood, to documents and PPE equipment, to vital Covid-19 samples.

“We are a dedicated and passionate volunteer force that provide a service to the NHS to a professional standard, free of charge,” he continued. “We’ve moved everything from surgical instruments to human donor milk – it’s phenomenal.”

UK Blood Bike charities were recently given vital additional financial support, with Vehicle Excise Duty (road tax) on service vehicles scrapped from April 1 and free fuel across BP’s 1200-strong network of forecourts until at least the end of the month. 

If you would like to support the Blood Bikers, donations can be made to individual charity groups on their websites.