First far north “blood bike” named
The first “blood bike” to be based in the far north is to be named in honour of NHS workers fighting covid-19.
Volunteer rider Davy Manson and HAIBB president Ross Sharp at Dounreay with the newly named "bloodbike"
“Hero” was put forward by a Dounreay engineer after the site’s operator, DSRL, gave £10,000 to the charity Highlands and Islands Blood Bikes to expand its service in Caithness and north Sutherland.
HAIBB provides an out-of-hours courier service to the NHS, carrying urgent medical samples and supplies between healthcare facilities.
During the covid-19 pandemic, it has been working up to 14 hours a day in support of the NHS, taking coronavirus samples from facilities such as Caithness General Hospital to the testing labs at Raigmore Hospital in Inverness. The charity names each of its motorcycles and invited DSRL to come up with one for the latest addition to its fleet. Management passed the invitation to staff to come up with ideas.
Chris Simpson, a mechanical engineer decommissioning the site’s nuclear reactors, came up with the name.
My idea for the bike would be to name it ‘Hero’ after all the amazing NHS heroes who have done a great job throughout this pandemic,
he said.
Two Dounreay workers – project engineer Davy Manson (pictured, with HAIBB president Ross Sharp) and executive director Steve Young - are among the pool of volunteers who are riding Hero.