At the meeting on Monday 1st December of the Rotary Club of Church Wilne, President Geoff Smith had the pleasure of presenting Steven Aynsley with a £200 donated Bennetts of Derby gift voucher as the winner of the balloon race held at the Derbyshire Show at Elvaston last June. Steven's balloon travelled something like 600 miles to Michelan, Oberfranken in Germany. The profit from this event went to CLIC Sargent


Also at the meeting President Geoff inducted Simon Beal as Vice President to become the Church Wilne President in the Rotary year 2016/17

Speaker

The members of the Rotary Club of Church Wilne welcomed Bob Whitmore and John Wormald from the Derbyshire Blood Bikers who assist the medical services by transporting lifesaving medical supplies to hospitals in our region.

Bob in his presentation said he learned about this service at a meeting in Birmingham which was organised by a Southern Group. It took almost 3 years to get things organised and this included setting up a committee, getting charity status and they had to raise £5,000 to be accepted. Then they sorted out public liability and finally needed to convince the hospitals that this was a service without a cost, which they initially could not believe.

All volunteer riders need to hold an advanced riding qualification and under go assessments before taking to the road on one of their four fully livered bikes.

Most of the deliveries are out of office hours and it is not just blood that is transported and includes urgent medical items, breast milk and bone marrow.

The breast milk is contained in 4 oz bottles which is used to feed premature babies and since the introduction of this breast milk illness in these
babies has been halved. The biker transports 60 bottles which are contained in a special white bag and kept away from the blood which are in a special red bag.

The members were given an idea of the annual running costs and the importance of their fund raisers. They have been involved with the recent
Rickshaw challenge from Nottingham to Alton Towers and then the next day to Coventry.

Currently they have 15 male bikers and several ladies on the fundraising side and they hope to get a fifth bike in the near future. Their bikes are
based in Dronfield for Chesterfield, Derby, Burton-upon-Trent and Bulwell.

Their web site is www.derbyshirebloodbikers.org.

Rotarian John Cook in thanking Bob for a most informative and inspiring talk said well done for braking through many barriers and making Blood Bikers a reality.

Photograph: Left to right – Bob Whitmore, President Geoff Smith and John Wormald.

Ray Terry