Volunteers on wheels

Blood Bike West saving lives on their motorbikes

NOT a day goes by in John Moylan’s schedule when he doesn’t engage in something to do with Blood Bike West. He wouldn’t have it any other way.

John is the Chairman of this charity organisation run solely by volunteers. Those involved in Blood Bike West in County Galway don’t exactly run, more they hop on their motorbikes and deliver essential medical supplies and equipment around the country. It is quite the pursuit to undertake in your spare time.

“We tie in with the HSE, hospitals, and labs when they have no cover,” said John Moylan, who lives in Athenry, but is from Galway City originally. “We don’t carry gallons of blood, but we do carry blood samples. We carry all sorts of things like scans, because they are not able to email them.

“We are an out-of-hours service. We work with Galway Hospice; we get night calls from them regularly. We bring medication and medical devices.

“We bring breast milk to the neo-natal units. We do quite a lot of that every week. There is no breast milk bank in Ireland, so the drivers have to travel to pick it up in Enniskillen and go from anywhere to Letterkenny down to Cork with it then.”

Blood Bike West began in Galway in 2012 …

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