Freewheelers EVS News

This page contains recent news articles about Freewheelers EVS. For older news articles see our news archive.

Royal award for Freewheelers unsung heroes

June^2nd 2008
Freewheelers has been given the Queen's Award for Voluntary Service. The award, which is the highest accolade that can be given to a voluntary group, is equivalent to an MBE. It is awarded every year on June 2nd, the anniversary of the Queen's Coronation, to recognise groups of individuals who are giving their time freely for the benefit of others.

Freewheelers members past and present are thrilled to receive the award. We are especially pleased to receive so much positive publicity as a result, including interviews on BBC Points West and BBC Somerset, as well as articles in the Bristol Evening Post, Wiltshire Times, Mid-Somerset newspapers and the BBC News website. See our Press Cuttings page for other newspaper articles relating to the award.

Freewheelers will be presented with a certificate signed by The Queen and a commemorative piece of crystal. Four members of the charity have been invited to attend a garden party at Buckingham Palace. In addition we have the right to display the unsung heroes logo (pictured right) on our website and all of our stationery.

BCfm Freewheelers interview

March 14^th 2008
Bristol-based community radio station BCfm has just broadcast an article about Freewheelers. It features BCfm reporter John Barker interviewing Freewheelers chairman John Graves, treasurer Ian Pruce and rider Mike Belch. The six minute long article covers our work and our efforts to raise an extra £20,000 this year to replace our aging fleet of motorcycles.

Listen to the article. (MP3 format, 5.5MB)

Mike Cummin

January  2008
Mike Cummin, one of the founding members of Freewheelers' service in Bath, died suddenly on January 8^th. We would like to extend our deepest sympathy to his wife Viv and their two daughters.

Mike's funeral took place on Friday January 18^th at Weston Methodist Church in Bath and was attended by a number of Freewheelers members, including three of our operational bikes. 

Freewheelers get a big grin from SmugMug

November 13^th 2007
We Freewheelers EVS members have a big grin on our faces thanks to SmugMug. Our photo galleries have always been one of the most popular sections on our website, but the previous freeware software that we used for hosting the images was buggy and insecure. So SmugMug have come to our rescue by donating their professional digital photo gallery service to Freewheelers enabling us to host all of our precious images.

Our big grin!

Freewheelers photo galleries, are now hosted on SmugMug. They contain all the same images as before but are better organised, quicker to access and provide some really slick features such as slide shows.

Feel free to browse through the gallery and leave comments or rate the photos that you see. In particular, if you like the SmugMug service then give it a go. You can sign up for a 14 day free trial with no obligation whatsoever. After 14 days you can get their basic service, with secure unlimited storage and lightning fast bandwidth for just US$39.95 per year - that's less than £20 at current exchange rates.

Record breaking collection at Weston Beach Race

Freewheelers volunteers collecting at Weston Beach Race

October 24^th 2007
Freewheelers EVS would like to thank visitors to Weston Beach Race for their generosity following a record breaking collection of £2,143 — an increase of 35% over 2006. A combination of good weather and a new location on the sea front provided by North Somerset Council ensured a steady stream of visitors to our exhibit.

With fuel prices close to £1 per litre mean that it is even more important to keep raising money. Our service costs around £16,000 per year just to operate the bikes. We then need to raise even more money to replace one of our four bikes each year. Our service is provided free of charge to the NHS, so we depend entirely on donations from the public and local business.

A selection of photographs take of our collection can be seen in the Freewheelers gallery.

Magazine praises Blood Brothers "Extreme Volunteering"

July 10^th 2007
Freewheelers EVS is featured in the August issue of Motorcycle Sport & Leisure magazine, one of the UK's leading bike magazines. The five page article ( 1.4Mb), part of the magazine's regular "A Day In The Life" series, looks at the work done by Freewheelers volunteers. It begins in dramatic style:

"Imagine the unimaginable, the unpalatable, but the ever possible. You've been out on your bike, sideswiped by a car, and wound up in a hospital bed. You need an operation that may require specialist x-rays or scans, or maybe a pint or two of blood. Perhaps the surgeon's saw will need a nice new sharp blade. We all know by now the pressure the NHS is under, and don't think that they'll send an ambulance just for your titanium leg screws, so who's going to bring this stuff to help you if it's needed by the medical staff, and needed quickly, at times urgently, and out of normal hours? The angels with dirty faces that serve a huge area of Somerset, north Somerset, Bristol, Bath and west Wiltshire are the Freewheelers Emergency Voluntary Service, and it's they who are called upon and relied upon, by NHS medical staff, to collect and deliver these vital supplies."
©2007 Adam Bolton, Motorcycle Sport & Leisure

The article contrasts our work with volunteering to making cakes for the village fete, describing what we do as "extreme volunteering". It also has interviews with Freewheelers volunteers and has a number of pictures taken in the grounds of Frenchay Hospital. Some notable quotes from our volunteers include:

"Some days I'll get in from work at 6:50pm having just flown in from Scotland, the wife hands me a pint of orange juice and lemonade that I'll stick down my neck, then I'm out of the door again by 7pm on an emergency call" - volunteer rider Mark Douglas describing the difficulty of balancing a full day's work with riding for Freewheelers in the evening.

"How urgent?" "Well let's put it this way" came the reply, "we've got him on the operating table with his head open, and we want to know what to do next" - a reply from a hospital to one of our co-ordinators when asked about the urgency of a call.

We would like to thank reporter Adam Bolton and Motorcycle Sport & Leisure Magazine, the article is great publicity for us and for other blood bike groups around the country. Be sure to go out and buy a copy today. Better still take out a subscription to this excellent magazine!

Fund Raising Success

Use the bike Luke - Give us a go or we will destroy your planet!

July 1^st 2007
In April and June, Freewheelers exhibited at The Mall at Cribbs Causeway.

On both occasions we had one of our bikes on show in the shopping centre. For safety reasons the bike had its fuel tank drained and its battery disconnected. The bike proved a big draw and many children had their photograph taken on the bike. Most were happy to pay for the photograph, but the two characters pictured on the right told us our puny little planet would be destroyed if we didn't let them have a go on the bike. We also held a tombola and a collection.

In total we raised £1,175. We would like to thank the public for their generosity, and the management of The Mall for inviting us to exhibit. We look forward to repeat visits next year.

RUH saves Freewheelers rider

Mike Cummin outside the RUH at the 2005 launch of Freewheelers' service in Bath

May 15^th 2007
An article published in The Bath Chronicle on May 14^th tells how staff at the Royal United Hospital saved the life of Freewheelers volunteer rider Mike Cummin. In February Mike collapsed outside Bath Sports and Leisure Centre and was rushed to the RUH for life saving heart surgery. Just eight days after receiving his revolutionary treatment Mike was home and starting the long process of recovery. Today Mike is back in the saddle on his own motorcycle and is building up to a return to duty with Freewheelers.

In 2006 Mike and his fellow Freewheelers volunteers made more than 460 deliveries on behalf of the RUH and its associated hospitals in the Bath area. Everyone hopes that providing this help is the only interaction we ever have with these hospitals. However, it is reassuring to know when the tables are turned and we need the hospital's help, that we can expect to receive such excellent treatment. All of the volunteers at Freewheelers would like to thank the first-aiders at the sports centre, the ambulance paramedics and the staff at the RUH for saving the life of our friend and colleague Mike Cummin.