On my pre retirement course ( thank you University of Derby, it was the only help I got as I approached early retirement ) one thing stood out and that was 'don't immediately start volunteering' as it's the easiest job to get and the hardest to leave !
With that good advice it took me maybe three and a half years before I hooked up with Shropshire Staffordshire and Cheshire blood bikes, I did the rider induction and then took ages due to the pandemic and associated lockdowns to get my IAM - Institute of Advanced motorcyclists pass/award/certificate. Then I had to be assessed again by the charity before I could ride their bikes, then there was the bike inductions , then there was the buddy ride.
If I recall correctly the timeline in the broadest of terms was something like ....
Charity introduction and registration - Autumn 2019
Start to end of the IAM course July 2020 - September 2021
IAM test and pass - November 2021
SSCBB assessed ride December 2022
Bike location and bike induction (waiting on Fire station pass also) January 2022
My first ride which was a buddy ride where I went out with an experienced rider ( Gareth) 4th February 2022
That was my first Blood bike shift and since its the 4th February when this blog post will appear ( at 6.30am when my alarm goes off for an early blood bike shift) I wanted to record my years statistics
Total shifts 26
Total miles 3839
Total drops* 93
Average miles per shift 147.7
Total hours riding 188.25
I'm not as dedicated as some riders but then again I have other interests. It's a nice thought I've helped so many strangers and the NHS also. The * is the number of stops - there may have been multiple samples left at one stop so the package count will be well into the 100....
I always wanted to ride blood bikes -I've some good friend who also volunteer. However when we lost our good friend Jean Emery to a very aggressive blood cancer, and I know she's have be on the receiving end of work done by unknown number of blood bikers maybe across the country - I wanted to do it in her memory and everytime I ride a shift I think of Jean.
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