EAAA receives Norfolk Blood Bikes milestone delivery

EAAA has delivered blood transfusions as a core part of our life-saving service since 2021. Volunteers from Norfolk Blood Bikes charity make deliveries to Helimed House, EAAA’s Norwich headquarters, each night to ensure that blood is available on board the helicopter and critical care cars for every shift.

Norfolk Blood Bikes started helping the local hospitals by making out-of-hours deliveries back in late 2011. Every night and every day during the weekend and bank holidays, their volunteers are on call to uplift and deliver life-saving blood products, samples for testing, donated breast milk and, occasionally, small equipment to ensure that health care professionals have the materials they need, when they need them, day or night. Norfolk Blood Bikes provide this service free of charge to keep crucial funds focused on frontline care.

Richard Hindson, Director of Operations and Infrastructure at East Anglian Air Ambulance (EAAA), says, “Volunteers from Norfolk Blood Bikes deliver to Helimed House, EAAA’s Norwich base, every night of the year. This means EAAA crews have blood on board the helicopter and critical care cars ready to treat trauma patients, who have major bleeds and require urgent out of hospital critical care, to give them best chance of survival and recovery.

Richard continues, “Last year, EAAA crews delivered 68 blood transfusions at the scene of medical emergencies in our region, so we are incredibly grateful for the tireless dedication of Norfolk Blood Bike volunteers as they mark the milestone of their 20,000th delivery.”

Sandy Gourlay, Chairman of Norfolk Blood Bikes (NBB), stated, “Every year, our amazing team of volunteers give up more than 25,000 hours of their time to ride, drive, fundraise and promote the charity in order to keep the wheels turning and essential deliveries arriving on time. We all take great pride in being part of this team and serving the people of Norfolk.”