The cash, from Durham City’s Freemen, will help meet the biggest running costs of the Northumbrian Blood Bikers regional fleet of dozen bikes and eight cars which burn their way through more than £7,500 worth of fuel annually and run up a £26,000 insurance bill.
One of the most frequently used bases is just a few hundred yards from the University of Durham Hospital, with its unpaid riders and drivers drawn from surrounding villages. One of the team is Steven Laws, who lives in the city and qualified for right of entry into the Freemen’s ranks on completion an apprenticeship more than 30 years ago.
Over the last decade, the Durham riders have completed nearly 5,000 runs. The volunteers deliver the service free to the NHS, receive no Government funding and rely entirely on donations and fund raising.
Kirsty Lawrence, a trustee of the bikers’ charity, said: “We don’t make any charge for the service we provide, not least so the money the NHS saves in transportation costs can be put back into their front-line care of patients. We rarely find out who we have helped but one day we might be the ride of your life.”
The chairman of the freemen’s charitable trust, Eric Bulmer, said: “Once again a group of volunteers, whose work goes unseen and often unacknowledged and yet provide a vital service for our local community. We are delighted to provide the support they surely deserve.