The Hub - January 2016

January
2016
New year, New Opportunities
Happy New Year to you all, I hope you
had a good one and didn’t indulge too much.
Father Christmas and the Elves (not the
50’s Rock sensation) had a great time at the
Princess Anne on Christmas morning.
A big thanks to Paul Byers, Steve Waters and
Neil and Margaret Stocker who managed
to fill three sacks of goodies to distribute
between parents and staff.
Another big thank you to Neil and Margaret
Stocker, Rich Hobden, and Jon Wood who
turned up suited and booted for Elf duty at
the Princess Anne. Unfortunately Jon only
just managed to get out of his car when
his phone rang and he was whipped off to
Warminster RV with a sample to Filton.
ETA to blood bank was interesting - I don’t
suppose the controller has had many 20
seconds. responses! Thanks all of you, team
effort and a blood run taboot.
As some of you may have read there were
a series of break-ins around the Alton area
over Christmas. Unfortunately the Station
Café was hit and our collection tin amongst
other items, was removed. Not much we can
do about that. We’ll just have to replace it
and start again.
Saturday January 2nd saw our stalwarts once
again out in very unfavourable conditions,
collecting in Fareham town centre and
paying homage to Graham’s MM brick in the
pavement.
Van, events trailer, and blood bike looked
good but the weather was against us. Never
mind some you lose etc.
Above - Mike Croudson says a few words and receives
a cheque for £750 from New Forest HOG.
Left - SERV Wessex join The Elf Service
None the less fifty odd quid was put
into the kitty by the plucky residents of
Fareham who braved the elements.
New Forest HOG, who have supported us
over the past year, have kindly donated a
cheque for £ 750.23. Mike Croudson did
the honours collecting the cheque on our
behalf. More good news is that they are
going to keep us on as group charity for the
forthcoming year, so once again, a bigThank
You. Their support is very much appreciated.
We will be having a ride out to Empress
of Blandings in Cadnam on the evening of
Feb 4th, to say thank you and give HOG
members a chance to find out a little more
about what we do. (Details to follow).
Looking into the coming year I expect SERV
Wessex to continue growing and improving
the services we offer, including the new Air
Ambulance service which is just around
the corner and will involve a night-flying
helicopter and a new Rapid Response Vehicle
based in Eastleigh.
Don’t forget to keep your eyes open
for opportunities to raise funds or
improve our operations. Steve Hyde and
Tony Markham are currently working
on some signage, similar to that used by
one of our neighbouring groups on all
its blood bikes. It may be something we
incorporate and had Steve not asked the
question we may not have known about it.
Keep up the good work everyone. You are
without doubt the most important resource
SERV Wessex has.
Danny Brown, Chair, SERV Wessex.
Newsletter
Sponsored By:
http://www.captec-group..com
SERV Wessex put on their wet weather gear to start
the 2016 Events Season in Fareham
Christmas and New Year saw the
volunteers of SERV Wessex out and about
pressing the flesh, raising awareness and
generally doing what we do.
As Danny mentioned in his piece on
the front page, Christmas morning saw
some of our crew visit the Princess Anne
hospital in Southampton, dispensing
goodies and good cheer in equal measure.
‘Danta’ was joined by Neil & Margaret
Stocker, Rich Hobden and oh so briefly
Jon Wood, before his services were
demanded by our ever loyal customers to
deliver a sample.
Saturday January 2nd saw Graham and his
crack event squad form up in the precinct
in Fareham Town Centre to raise funds for
SERV Wessex.
As those of you who were out and about
that day will be aware, the weather was
none too kind with strong winds and
heavy showers at times. Nonetheless,
Graham and
Above - Rick Archer cradles a cuppa in the rain whilst
his team stuck
Below - Oh dear. Graham seems to have lost the Sat
it out and
Nav. Never mind, theres no place like gnome!
managed to
raise £50 for
the cause. A
special SERV
Wessex
gallantry medal
with inclement
weather clasp
is awarded to
Rick Archer
and Jason King
for supporting
their glorious
leader in the
face of undue
precipitation. Above - Santa Dan joined by Neil., Rich, Margaret and members of staff from the
Princess Anne Neo-Natal unit on Christmas morning.
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Suppliers of the Screen and Rack for the
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Bits & Pieces - News from the world In case you missed
the last meeting...
of
SERV
Wessex
Paul Byers. long serving controller
Once again we summarise the last
social, in this case December, for the
benefit of those who were unable to
attend.
and trustee saw the following article
from the Metro (the paper they give
away at railway stations) put up on
SERV SSL’s website. It is a heartfelt
thank you from a Mum who has
benefitted from the services we and
others like us provide. Just in case
you are out on a cold winters night
wondering why we do this stuff......
Above - Racer and NABB ambassador
Maria Costello MBE and Below - Actress,
biker and fellow ambassador Amanda Mealing.
Last month I published the first
crossword competition we have had in
a long time. For those of you looking
for the answers, I am afraid you will
have to wait until the next issue. The
entries are due at this evening’s social
and I won’t have anyone cheating! Full
details and prizewinner announced
next month.
Our man at NABB, Rich Hobden has
persuaded them to share our yearly
statistics update on their Facebook
page. At least other groups and their
followers will be able to see what we
have done. Thanks Rich!
Whilst on the subject of NABB, you
may have seen that they have appointed
a couple of new ambassadors to spread
the word about blood bikes. The first
is Maria Costello MBE, the first solo
woman to achieve a podium place in
the Isle of Man motorcycle races. The
second ambassador is actress and biker
Amanda Mealing, most famous for
her roles in BBC Television’s Holby
City and Casualty. Both ladies are
keen to work with NABB and Maria
was quoted saying: “Without the work
of the Blood Bike charities, hospitals
would be forced to pay couriers and taxis
to transport urgent products out-of-hours.
These amazing volunteers provide a rapid
response courier service transporting
hospital deliveries across the country but
what’s most extraordinary is that very few
patients actually know that a Blood Biker
has been involved in their care – they are
the unseen heroes of the night.“
Recent recruits Jack Lloyd and
Stacey Daley both work at Irwin
Mitchell solicitors in Southampton.
They recently wrote to say that they
had campaigned successfully to appoint
SERV Wessex as their office Charity
of the Year for 2016. This means that
all of their fund raising activities over
the next 12 months will benefit SERV
Wessex. Their various events raised
over £1500 for last years charity and
they hope to at least as well for us
next year. We hope to arrange a visit
to the office to explain more and look
forward to working with them.
Some of you will remember that
Our man in Alton, Dave Parsons, had
arranged for SERV Wessex to be the
chosen charity for the Alton Bowls Club.
Unfortunately, Dave was not able to
attend the meeting but Tim was pleased
to announce that Dave’s friends at the
Bowls club had raised a super total
of £525 in aid of SERV Wessex. This
is a months fuel for our bikes and is
very much appreciated. On behalf of
the Committee and Members of SERV
Wessex, we would like to convey our
thanks both to the club and to Dave for
making the donation possible.
Tim Bennett also announced
that following his meetings with
the Hampshire and Isle of Wight
Air Ambulance, their management
committee had agreed to donate
£10,000 to SERV Wessex to fund the
purchase of another bike to ensure that
we are able to continue providing our
replenishment service to the helicopter
over the coming year.
We were pleased to welcome two new
members to the fold who had completed
their GMP training before the social.
Alex Lister hails from Dorchester whilst
his new colleague Paul See is from the
other side of the patch in Hayling Island.
We wish them both well and ask all
members to assist them in your usual
whole hearted fashion!
Finally, a cautionary note. We must
remind members of their obligation to
comply with speed limits when on SERV
duty, particularly when riding marked
bikes. A brief blip when overtaking or
avoiding a hazard is Ok but blatant
speeding is not. All of our marked bikes
are equipped with Sat-nav which can
be interrogated and any violations
that our revealed will be investigated.
Remember, your safety is our prime
concern but when you wear the jacket
you carry our reputation with you.
The Month in Figures
A happy New Year to all
fellow SERV members.
December 2015 has been
a busy month with 102 runs
completed.
A big thank you to all the
riders and controllers who
were on duty over the
Christmas Holiday period.
On Christmas day Jon
Wood, controlled by Paul
Byers, did an emergency
run to Warminster RVP to
hand over samples to go
to Filton. Sarah Trinick and
Phil Hughes made sure
that the Air Ambulance was
supplied with fresh blood on
Christmas night.
Graham Martin controlled
by Marlene Rickatson, did
a run on New Years Eve to
take a delivery of Factor 7
(very rare blood type) from
Southampton Path Lab
to Chichester RVP to be
collected by SERV Sussex.
During December our
members covered 3,583
miles between hospitals and
saved the NHS £1,612.00.
Destination
QA
Milk Bank
Winchester
Basingstoke
Inter-County
Southampton
Who were our biggest
Bournemouth
customers? Basingstoke
Hospital required our
Poole
services 21 times followed
Salisbury
by Salisbury Hospital with 17
Dorchester
runs. On average, Monday
was the busiest day of the
BMI
month. Jayne Morgan and
Records Office
Ben Rivers each controlled 6
AirAmbulance
runs per duty.
There were 59 journeys
under taken by Bike and 43
by Car. The total mileage
covered by SERV was 8,362
this month.
As we have now completed
Total Runs
a calendar year it’s time for
a tot up. A total of 1,146 runs 2015 was 95,440 compared
to 90,854 for 2014.
were made in 2015 (2 less
than 2014).
The saving to the NHS for
the year is £18,585, covering
41,302 miles with product.
Although the runs remain
about the same, we saved
the NHS £2,089.00 more
and travelled an extra 8644
miles in 2015. Including
mileage to get to pickups,
the total mileage travelled for
As I am now doing the run
logs all the time, it would
be appreciated that when
controllers have no runs on
a shift that they could let
me know. This will help me
ensure that I do not miss
anything.
Oct 15
12
25
14
19
13
0
0
0
11
0
0
0
13
Nov 15
14
12
8
12
11
3
1
0
7
0
0
0
15
Dec 15
13
11
10
21
11
3
0
0
17
0
0
0
16
107
83
102
acknowledge receipt of any
run logs submitted to me.
If you have not heard from
me within a couple of days,
please email me again just
in case your mail did not get
through.
Regards,
Margaret
Also, I will always
How to contact SERV Wessex
Chairman
Danny Brown
[email protected]
Training
Tony Markham
[email protected]
Transport
Neil Stocker
[email protected]
Events
Graham Martin
[email protected]
Membership & enquiries
Anna Gibson
[email protected]
Treasurer
Tim Bennett
[email protected]
NABB Representative
Rich Hobden
[email protected]
Rota
Tim Bennett
[email protected]
Publicity & The Hub
Steve Morton
[email protected]
Merchandise
Clare & Steve Hyde
[email protected]
Web & Social Media
Andy Slocombe
[email protected]
Trustees - Paul Byers,
Steve Hyde, Tim Bennett
[email protected]
SERV Wessex, Ruby Lodge, 5 Wallis Road, WATERLOOVILLE, Hants, PO7 7RX
REGISTERED CHARITY No: 1156383