The Mansfield Building Society has pledged £500 to Nottinghamshire Blood Bikes to help purchase and adapt a new motorbike to enable the charity to extend its reach in to the north of the county.
Blood Bikes is a national charity that operates outside of normal NHS working to delivering blood for transfusion as well as breast milk. The service is free for the NHS, significantly reducing the cost of using taxis which are currently used to fulfil the service and have been on the increase throughout the county over recent years.
The charity has created the Blood Bikes 100cc Club which aims to attract £100 donations from 100 local businesses to help them raise £10,000 to invest in the new motorbike.
Peter Hauton a member of Nottinghamshire Blood Bikes and an organiser of the Blood Bikes 100cc Club saidWe work hard to ensure we run as effectively as possible with many riders now having completed well over 100 journeys. We want to expand and need help from local businesses like The Mansfield to achieve our goals and help us help the NHS deliver its incredible service as efficiently as possible to more parts of the UK.This is why a partnership has been developed between Mansfield District Council, Mansfield Area Partnership (a partnership of schools across Mansfield) and Mansfield 2020 (a membership group of businesses across Mansfield and Ashfield). They have joined forces to give young people in year 13 who have made an informed choice not to go to university and provide them with a structured career-related internship as part of their timetable during 6th form.
Mansfield 2020 is working alongside local businesses to create awareness, interest and promote the benefit of having an intern work within their organisation. Businesses are being asked to provide a business-related project that a young person can complete within the business environment from October to June 2016 – ideally ½ a day per week but this is flexible according to the timetable and business requirements.
Mansfield Area Partnership is working with groups of 6th formers from all the local Mansfield schools to develop a bank of CVs that outline current skills sets and future career aspirations.The Nottinghamshire charity operates from 7pm-6am Monday to Friday and 24 hours a day on weekends – hours increase during holiday periods. The organisation is currently at capacity with only 3 bikes, mainly working within Nottingham City Centre. The Charity relies solely on fundraising and donations from the general public which is enough to cover the basic running costs.Nottinghamshire Blood Bikes are looking to grow the area in which they operate, including expansion into Mansfield and Ashfield, with the charity expecting to be awarded new contracts in the next few months which means demand for the service is set to increase further. The new contracts will relieve the NHS of its current cost and reliance on the use of taxis, benefiting the NHS in northern wards of the county. Mansfield Building Society is delighted to help Blood Bikes with its plans. Richard Crisp, Commercial Development Executive at the Society, said:We are proud to be one of the first members of the 100cc Club and help the charity raise funds to invest in a much-needed service for the local community. With the charities current and future expansion plans, we hope to support them as much as possible and would encourage other local businesses to do the same.If, like The Mansfield, you’d like to make a donation to Nottinghamshire Blood Bikes please visit: http://nottinghamshirebloodbikes.org/donate/ or to become a member of the 100cc Club please visit: http://nottinghamshirebloodbikes.org