MPs from across Devon pledged their support to emergency courier charity Devon Freewheelers at a breakfast meeting at the House of Commons.

Neil Parish, MP for Tiverton and Honiton organised the gathering to highlight two aspects of the service: funding and regulation.

Mr Parish met with the charity earlier in the year and, after learning about the challenges faced by the service, arranged for representatives to meet with fellow Devon MPs including Gary Streeter, MP for South West Devon, Adrian Sanders, MP for Torbay and Hugo Swire, MP for East Devon.

The MPs heard from Devon Freewheelers CEO Daniel Lavery, Chairman Jonathan Broad and Operations Director Neil Gardner, who gave a heartfelt presentation about the two concerns.   

The charity, which provides a voluntary out-of-hours service for the emergency transportation of blood, breast milk and other medical supplies, is hoping to secure financial support from NHS charitable funds.

“At the moment Devon Freewheelers is funded purely through donations from the public and corporate sponsorship. We believe this crucial voluntary service would benefit greatly from more formal financial assistance to help run and maintain the bikes,” explained Neil Gardner.

Additionally, MPs heard about the need for a regulatory body for voluntary blood bike services, not just in Devon but at a national level.

Daniel Lavery clarified: “All of the blood bike services in the country are currently operating outside of exemptions under Section 19 Road Traffic Act. In 2013, the Department of Transport approached Devon Freewheelers with regard to setting up a regulatory body – they spoke to us as we had already undergone training and achieved necessary service level agreements.

“In response to this we launched the National Blood & Organ Transfer Service (NBOTS). Yeovil Freewheelers and Kent’s SERV (Service by Emergency Response Volunteers) have already signed up to this independent body and other blood bike groups have told us they are keen to join.” 

Devon Freewheelers is seeking to have NBOTS formally recognised as the regulatory body for all blood bike groups across the UK. “We believe that self-regulation will enable better training for all volunteers resulting in safer standards,” added Daniel.

All of the MPs in attendance at the meeting gave their support to the two matters, as did representatives of MPs unable to attend. They have agreed initially to be signatories on letters to be sent to the ministers for Transport and Health. The Devon MPs and Devon Freewheelers will then meet with ministers later in the year.