Blood courier service benefitting from lottery ticket sales
Published: 18 October 2024
A charity that transports urgent supplies of blood throughout Devon and beyond, providing valuable and often life-saving voluntary support to the NHS and its patients, is just one of many good causes that are benefitting from ticket sales of the Exeter Community Lottery.
South West Blood Bikes said the Lottery helped them pay for fuel to keep their bikes and cars on the road and deliver a crucial service.
“Our fuel bill alone is approximately £1,500 a month,” said Caroline Retter, of South West Blood Banks.
South West Blood Bikes is one of 120-plus good causes signed up to the Exeter Community Lottery. They have been involved for almost a year now.
When people play the weekly lottery they have a chance to choose which good cause to support. Fifty pence in every pound then goes to that cause, with 10p going towards the Exeter Central Fund. The rest of the money pays for prizes and the administration of the lottery.
Players of the lottery can also choose to nominate the money to a central fund which will support funding to groups throughout the city as part of the grants programme.
So far good causes in Exeter have benefitted from thousands of pounds in funding from ticket sales.
South West Blood Bikes provides a free courier service to the NHS & Hospices in Devon, and beyond if needed.
It operates during evenings and weekends when there are no NHS couriers on duty. “We transport blood and other medical samples, whole blood, medication, patient notes, medical equipment and donor breast milk for premature babies,” explained Caroline.
“The service is operated entirely by volunteers mainly on motorbikes but we also have some drivers too, with no paid staff, and run entirely on donations, fundraising and grants.”
South West Blood Bikes provide its free blood bike service to the Royal Devon and Exeter Hospital in Exeter, transporting items both to and from the hospital and outlying community hospitals to support patients from Exeter and the rest of the county.
“A few months ago, with the agreement of our volunteers we also started to provide the hospital ith a weekday service. Instead of the hospital paying for private taxis or couriers, we now provide them with this service for free, so the money they would have spent on other transport options can be used to provide other services to patients and their families in the Exeter area. Since we began in 2018 we estimate we have saved the NHS in Devon over £441,000 in transport costs!”
Cllr Matt Vizard, Lead Councillor with responsibility for Communities said: “It’s fantastic to see money from the Community Lottery supporting charities like South West Blood Bikes, who provide such crucial voluntary support to the NHS. It’s not an exaggeration to say that the service they deliver is nothing short of a life-saver to people living in Exeter and Devon.”
“When people buy a ticket, they’re not only giving themselves a chance of winning prizes, they’re also helping community groups and organisations in and around Exeter to thrive.”
Tickets cost just £1 and players have a one in 50n chance of winning a prize. Draws take place every Saturday with ticket holders in with a chance of scooping the top prize of £25,000.
To buy tickets for the Exeter Community Lottery or to register a good cause, visit exetercommunitylottery.co.uk