A VITAL medical sample urgently needing to make its way to Bristol was successfully transported by a Fife charity.

Fife Blood Bikes accepted an offer from NHS Fife to ensure that the sample made its way from Victoria Hospital in Kirkcaldy down south.

An initial attempt was made during a national courier but was delayed to the point that the sample became unusable.

With the cost of the national courier proving to be too high, Fife Blood Bikes were brought in as a cheaper and more reliable alternative.

A spokesperson from NHS Fife commented on the mission: “The NHS Fife Blood Transfusion Laboratory at Victoria Hospital, Kirkcaldy and the Fetal Medicine midwives would like to highlight and acknowledge that Blood Bikes Scotland, the Civil Air Service and the Bristol Freewheelers [all linked through the UK wide National Association of Blood Bikes (NABB) have gone above and beyond.

“They helped provide outstanding care to a fetal medicine patient ensuring a specialist sample was delivered in time to the Molecular Diagnostics Laboratory, NHSBT, Bristol.

“We are hugely grateful to all of these charities for their support, efforts and coordination. Excellence acknowledged.”

Rob Fraser, duty committee member with Blood Bikes Scotland, organised a relay team of volunteer riders from seven different regions across the UK.

These riders would work to transport the sample between pick up and delivery locations from Kirkcaldy to Bristol.

To maximise the speed of delivery, the team contacted the Civil Air Support (CAS) for assistance, who offered to fly the sample down, weather permitting.

The seven riders stood on standby in case the weather didn’t fit, but clear skies meant the sample was taken down by plane.

CAS pilot Tony Hall flew from Wolverhampton to meet Fife Blood Bikes rider Martin Harris at Fife Airport.

Tony flew the sample down to Gloucester Airport, where another Blood Bikes rider met and took the sample for the final leg of the journey to the lab in Bristol.

The entire operation took just five hours, shaving three off the planned journey time if the sample had been delivered by road.