STAFF and patients at Taunton’s Musgrove Park Hospital have praised the work of the Freewheelers Emergency Voluntary Service.
The charity provides an out-of-hours emergency motorcycle courier service to hospitals in the South West of England – delivering vital test samples, notes, X-Rays and medical supplies.
Consultant paediatrician Andrew Tandy said “Bikers are probably the gentlest giants on the road and Freewheelers prove they've some of the biggest hearts.
“They provide an invaluable courier service for emergency hospital samples, operating every evening and at weekends and in all weathers and all for free. They deserve every support we can give them.”
David Watson of the Freewheelers transported bone marrow samples from Taunton to Bristol Children’s hospital for Jacob Hayes and his family from Somerset this month. Mike Belch of Freewheelers said: "Our trained volunteer riders make over 2,000 deliveries each year.
"One third of these jobs involve collection or delivery for Musgrove Park Hospital. "We know that we deliver a real financial benefit to our hospitals, money that can be spent on patient care instead of couriers, but we rarely get to see the human side of our work.
"Such public thanks is always welcome to riders and gives us a moral boost that is much need at 11pm on a cold wet winter night riding across Exmoor or the Somerset Levels! "Knowing that we played a small part in the team that helped Jacob is thanks enough."
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