News – Freewheelers EVS

International Volunteer Day Celebrating our brilliant volunteers December 5th each year recognises volunteers around the world, this year has certainly seen our Freewheelers volunteers commitment, compassion and willingness to do whatever they can to help our charity through all that Covid has thrown at it and still deliver our service and much more to the communities we serve around Bristol, Bath and Taunton. An extra shout out as well to all our supporters who volunteer by doing collections in their shops or member groups they are part of, plus the children who have taken time to draw pictures of our bikes and rainbows, or our local poet Cathy all of whom keep us smiling throughout the year Thankyou

Blood Bike Day Friday August 14th is the annual national recognition day for all the blood bike groups up and down the country who provide their time and services free to their local communities to ensure we are there when you need our life saving service. Checkout facebook, twitter and LinkedIn posts using #bloodbikeday A BIG thank you to our band of volunteers whether riding, taking the calls from hospitals to co-ordinate the riders, and of course our fundraisers and supporters who ensure we can run 365 nights of the year. The Theme this year is #RisingToTheChallenge volunteers have been doing in leaps and bounds to support the Covid19 pandemic

John James Bristol Foundation John James was born in Bedminster in 1906 and became a very successful business man. He had a strong philanthropic drive to use monies for good. Although he passed in 1996, the John James Bristol Foundation continues this work with the emphasis on Bristol residents. The main areas of interest are education, health and the elderly. Freewheelers EVS applied to the Foundation and were staggered by the generosity of the giving.

A donation of £33,000 was made to Freewheelers EVS to cover the cost of purchasing a new FJR 1300 Blood Bike along with the monies to run it for approximately 75,000m miles (3 years) of life-changing, life-saving service.

John James’s blue plaque can be seen at the Windmill Hill city farm at the location of the house were he was born. With this new machine and the running costs, we would like to think that he would also approve of this more mobile and practical dedication to him.

Gazza’s first Blood Biking Hero shift! We are proud to present a video covering Gazza’s (bike 12) first shift with Freewheelers EVS following the fantastic fundraising of Garry Scutcher’s family and friends to ensure his wish to volunteer as a blood biker lives on in the form of dedicated Bike 12. The bike keys were handed over to us pre-Covid, following a beautiful speech by Garry’s wife Jo, before setting off to do his duty providing our free service to the local hospitals, hospices and the two air ambulances we supply with blood products every evening. thanks to Laramoto for capturing the special evening on video and to all of Garry’s family and friends who have ensured Gazza is firmly part of the Freewheelers EVS bloodbike family. Video:- Bike Presentation and 1st Night on shift On Gazza’s 2nd day we visited the Great Western Air Ambulance Charity site, this 2nd video link shows how we work together and gives a great insight to their charity. video: Gazza visits GWAAC

WINNERS! On tonight's ITV West Country news the results of the voting from the #PeoplesProjects were announced, our project Wheels to save lives was one of the three winners in our region. Woo hoo, we are so excited at the prospect of two new bikes for our fleet to help continue delivering and expanding our free life saving service to the local communities. Massive THANK YOU to everyone who helped spread the word and gathered in the votes - we don't know the final count itself so will let you know when we do.