FEBRUARY was a busy month for Shobrooke Friendly Club. On February 1, 47 members and friends from Crediton and Copplestone, went to the pantomime at Tiverton to see Sinbad, put on by the Sign Post Club of Tiverton.

The show was spectacular. Everybody thought that the costumes, dancing and acting were very good. It must be remembered that the girls who were dancing are mostly in their teens, as was explained to me by Brian Ware, one of the Officials of the Sign Post Club.

Unfortunately, once a dancer reaches the age of about 18 they leave for University, and so are then lost to the Club. All-in-all for an amateur production it was excellent.

The monthly meeting of the Club was held on February 21 at Shobrooke Village Hall, when the speaker was Dan Lavery, the CEO of the Devon Freewheelers.

Dan explained how the Freewheelers in Devon came about. About 12 years ago, on Christmas Eve, he and his wife were spending Christmas with his family in Northern Ireland, when he found his wife, Shelley, who was pregnant at the time, collapsed.

She was rushed to the Royal Victoria Hospital in Belfast. During a very traumatic evening in which she suffered severe haemorrhaging, requiring many pints of blood, Dan was suddenly aware of a motorcycle rider arriving with a box containing blood which was marked for his wife.

On making further enquiries Dan was told that this was a system which operated in Northern Ireland, operated entirely by volunteers, who gave up their spare time to transport blood and medical supplies from one hospital to another as required.

The Blood Bikes were not part of the NHS but supported it.

After several weeks Dan and Shelley, with their new born son, were able to return to Devon.

He was so impressed by the Blood Bike scheme, without which Shelley would have most certainly died, that he looked further into the situation and was horrified to discover that Devon was the only county in the country that did not have motorcycle riders who were volunteering their spare time to transport blood or drugs around.

No doubt being eternally grateful for how an unknown individual had been instrumental in saving his wife’s life, Dan set about setting up a similar scheme for Devon.

He discovered that there had been three or four attempts in the past to set up such a scheme in Devon, but unfortunately each attempt had failed due to lack of funds.

So keen was he, that he set up the charity, The Devon Freewheelers, and to fund it sold his property and business.

On acquiring a second-hand ex police motorcycle, he found himself running foul of the local constabulary. However, after talks with the Chief Constable, it was agreed that the Police would give motorcyclists joining the group specialist riding instructions, similar to that used by the force.

Unfortunately this was to be at a cost to the group. The advantage of this turned out to be that the Devon Freewheelers, because of this professional training, are the only group in the country who are entrusted by the NHS to transport human transplant organs to where they are needed.

The group comprises of 219 volunteers and 22 motorcycles. All the riders are unpaid volunteers who, after their normal work has finished, take turns to do a shift at the Freewheelers.

Each bike is equipped with a defibrillator and oxygen and can frequently get to the scene of an incident before a rapid response vehicle or ambulance, due to the ability of a bike to weave in and out of traffic.

The Friendly Club made a donation to the Freewheelers, and a collecting box was passed around. Dan was thanked for his interesting talk by Chairman, Jack Fey.

The meeting then carried on in the usual way with tea and biscuits, brewed as usual by Clifford and Dave.

The usual draw was held.

Two new members joined the Club, Mr and Mrs Eric Halsey.

The next meeting will be held on March 21 at Shobrooke Village Hall, commencing at 2.15pm, when Judith King will show the members how to “Exercise in a Chair”.

Norman Gale