Who are you? I am John Cooper, a 54 year old design engineer. I am married with one teenage daughter. I have been riding for Freewheelers since November 2009.
How long have you been riding and what bike do you normally ride? Riding since 1976, on and off with two long breaks, one of 11 years after which I had a nasty “born again biker” accident. I felt a great debt of gratitude to all those who helped in my rescue and recovery. I see riding for Freewheelers as a way of supporting the NHS that helped me at my time of need. I currently ride a 1996 Ducati 900SS but long for a Suzuki TL1000R.
What do you do for Freewheelers? Rider.
What do you like most about volunteering for Freewheelers? Freewheelers riding is great for those independent, self sufficient souls who enjoy problem solving to achieve the best possible outcome, in this case the swift and safe delivery of medical cargo. There is no motorcycling experience as sublime as riding in the wee small hours through deserted countryside with the full moon lighting the scene. Just you and the owls flying through the night, but with a serious purpose rather than just touring. Riding one of the charities bikes, which are maintained in tip-top condition (and what bikes!!) with the possibility of using “Blues and Twos” as a civilian. How could it be get any better for a committed biker? Bad weather and difficult riding conditions are challenges to be planned around. I always arrive back home with a real sense of achievement. No two rides or job details are the same. Even if some of the destinations become familiar there is always the possibility that something really out of the ordinary will crop up.
What do you least like about volunteering for Freewheelers? There are frustrating mistakes, like the confusion and puzzlement when I handed two nicotine patches to the staff in a Frenchay Hospital ward. They had asked for something completely different on the phone, but it had been misunderstood. A second journey was necessary to sort it out. I don’t really mind problems with the deliveries, it’s handing the bike over at the end of my shift that really upsets me. I get into a groove and find the shift ends all too soon. As you get to know the Freewheelers bikes you cannot help feeling a sense of ownership, so it feels like I am giving up my own bike.
Tell us about something memorable about your work for Freewheelers? It’s the small things that leave an impression in my mind. I was covering a Bath area job while the East bike was on a longer run. Swooping through a series of fast bends between Bath and Weston super Mare, I met what looked like me coming the other way! It was the East bike returning to Bath. It was like riding at a mirror for a moment. Then there are the jobs where you can see the value of the flexibility of the Freewheelers operation in occasionally delivering to private addresses, like the patient who had been discharged from hospital to her sheltered flat without her insulin kit.
Anything else you want to add? I have seen the work we do called “extreme volunteering”, but I think it could equally be described as “distance caring” in that we do not generally have contact with the patients we help. In fact, contact with our NHS customers is fleeting. Most of the time we are alone with out thoughts, enjoying the challenges of the ride and navigation and trying to find our way around hospital departments in a calm and professional manner, although I must admit calls involving the children’s hospitals do get done with perhaps a little more urgency than strictly needed.
Like most bikers, under the sometime stern looking protective layers we are a friendly and positive bunch, so look out for us on the road and around hospitals and give us a wave or say hello when you see us and stop for a chat if you see us collecting funds to keep the bikes on the road.
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