Emergency blood team needs help
A charity which delivers emergency supplies of blood to people in need and breast milk to premature babies is appealing for volunteers in Northampton during their busiest time of year.
Service By Emergency Rider Volunteers (S.E.R.V) also known as the Blood Runners, was set up in Northampton two years ago, but has been active in other parts of the country for 29 years.
The charity helps the NHS deliver blood out of hours and free of charge. they also deliver breast milk for a charity called UKAMB which supplies breast milk to premature babies.
The motorists give up their time to help others who need emergency supplies of blood.
The volunteers fund the charity at their own expense and rely on donations to keep the service running.
Team member, Brian O' Doherty, from S.E.R.V is desperately looking for more people from the Northampton area to help with the life saving service by delivering the supplies.
He said: "Over the past few months we have been at our busiest and urgently need more volunteers to help with the running and deliveries of the blood and donor milk."
The charity helps a number of hospitals including Northampton General Hospital. Brian added: "The hospitals that we help are Northampton, Kettering, John Radcliffe in Oxford, Milton Keynes and Stoke Mandeville.
"But Northampton, John Radcliffe and Kettering have been our busiest."
S.E.R.V has a main control room in New Malden, Surrey which is manned from 7pm to 6am, this is where the on-duty riders are also stationed.
Once a hospital has contacted the blood bank and ordered the blood, they contact the office and a rider is dispatched.
If the blood is for a hospital in another county, while the main rider leaves to go to the blood bank, the office calls the duty coordinator of the county which covers that particular hospital, who then dispatches their duty rider from his or her home to a transfer point to await the arrival of the main rider.
All riders follow a set route to each hospital to ensure that should they have a breakdown, a relief rider could be dispatched knowing where the rider should be at any time during the run. This saves time and effort and ensures there is as little delay to the run as possible. The Northampton based group of volunteers is looking for more people to offer their time.
To find out more information or to find out how to volunteer for the organisation visit: www.serv.org.uk on the internet.
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