Devon Blood Bikes charity short on vital cash

A Slee Blackwell personal injury solicitor who volunteers for Devon Freewheelers in his spare time reports on the cash crisis facing the charity.

Devon Freewheelers EVS, a registered charity providing motorbike delivery of urgent and emergency blood, organs, and other medical supplies to NHS hospitals in the West Country has suffered a drastic shortage of vital funds.
The service, which is run entirely by volunteers, including the highly-trained advanced motorcyclists who deliver the supplies, had a disastrous couple of months fundraising in the run-up to Christmas. The chairman, Dan Lavery, who founded the group, said that really bad weather had drastically reduced the amount of money collected by the charity in its regular fund-raising activities, because so few people had ventured out of doors. In some cases, fund-raising simply had to be cancelled because the weather was so atrocious.
To make matter worse, one of the riders was involved in a hit-and-run accident whilst delivering medical supplies, writing off the motorbike and his specialist riding equipment. The losses through November and December made a hole of over £2,000 in the charity’s reserves, to such an extent that riders were paying for fuel out of their own pockets, as well as giving their time and expert motorcycling skills for free. Since Christmas, the situation has improved a little, partly because of a donation of £500 from a North Devon benefactor, but it illustrates how even the most worthy of causes can be vulnerable in these difficult financial times. Read more about the blood bikes here:- https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-devon-19084664

Picture of James McNally

James McNally

Dubbed by The Guardian newspaper as “the dog bite solicitor”, James McNally is an expert in animal law and DASLS Solicitor of the Year 2024.
Picture of James McNally

James McNally

Dubbed by The Guardian newspaper as “the dog bite solicitor”, James McNally is an expert in animal law and DASLS Solicitor of the Year 2024.

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