A VOLUNTARY health charity that operates in the Scottish Borders has been awarded £1,000 from the Persimmon Homes’ Community Champions fund to help cover the cost of safety equipment.

Blood Bikes Scotland have a 17-bike fleet that delivers blood samples, medical equipment, and other special requirements to and from hospitals as well as care homes and patients’ homes, free of charge.

The volunteers initially started working for NHS Borders in 2014 and based themselves at the Borders General Hospital and since then they have grown considerably and currently have 13 motorcycles and 3 cars in their fleet.

Last year they helped four Scottish NHS Health Boards deliver over 10,000 items saving the NHS around £250,000.

John Baxter, from Blood Bikes Scotland, said: “The charity is 100% voluntary, and we are currently have over 100 members. Having no statutory funding however means we must purchase all vehicles and associated equipment ourselves.

“This kind donation from Persimmon Homes has already helped us to buy a few of the items we needed for a new bike we added last week. We bought Hi-Viz decals, name badges and the front and rear safety cameras for our new bike named ‘Vaila’ which is in service now for NHS Lothian.

“This type of equipment ensures the safety of our volunteers who work tirelessly to ‘give something back’ to our health workers and for that we would like to say a huge thank-you.”

Persimmon Homes’ Community Champions scheme was established to support charities and good causes by where they are working. Each month, every region picks two deserving applicants to be awarded up to £1,000. And, with 31 regions across the UK, the scheme donates up to £64,000 a month.

On behalf of Persimmon Homes East Scotland, sales director, Laura Still said: “Blood Bikes Scotland are an amazing charity who provide a critical service for people in Lothian that also supports the NHS. When hearing they had applied for our scheme, we were delighted to be able to support them in our own way.

“Our Community Champions initiative was set up to support groups and charities in the towns and cities where we are building and being close to our developments at The Willows and Lang Loan, both in Edinburgh prompted us to select Blood Bikes Scotland.”