Hucknall woman urges more disabled people to join Nottinghamshire Blood Bikes charity

Emma Donaldson, aged 36, who lives on Watnall Road and is disabled herself, says there are plenty of roles disabled people can take up with the charity to help support it and keep it going.

And being able to ride a motorbike is not a requirement.

Nottinghamshire Blood Bikes was formed in 2013 and is run entirely by volunteers.

Its members transport blood products, patient samples, medical files, frozen human breast milk for premature babies and much more, free of charge around the county for the NHS.

It wants to provide the service to more NHS hospitals and medical centres 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.

However, to do that, it needs more volunteers and workers to be part of it and Emma says being disabled should be no barrier to anyone.

She said: “I’m a volunteer with Nottinghamshire Blood Bikes and we are looking for more disabled people to get involved with us because it’s a job as it were and it’s hard for disabled people to get into work nowadays.

“Me talking from experience, I love it, I work from home, you don’t have to go out in bad weather and I love what I do.

“I work on the computer and I love what I do.

“It’s incredibly flexible, you can how much you want, when you want and we’re just looking for more diversity within the team.

“People hear the words ‘blood bikes’ and think you have to ride a motorbike but the charity is far more than that.

“We’re looking for fundraisers, drivers and controllers all the time.

“I’m a controller, so I’m a call handler and I direct the cars and bikes to where they need to be.”

Emma has been doing the job for just more than a year and the number of calls the service is receiving is increasing

She said: “We need people to cover night shifts and and just more people generally to available for those needing to use the service.”

Anyone interested in becoming part of the charity and joining the team should visit nottsbb.org/volunteering