How we help
Our volunteers are on call 365 days a year, working as a team to make sure lifesaving clinical deliveries get safely and quickly to their destinations all over Norfolk and beyond.
It’s not just about blood
As much as a patient might need a lifesaving blood or platelets transfusion within minutes of the delivery, another might need a clinical sample analysing in order to understand what urgent treatment is needed. Wherever we are in Norfolk, which ever hospital we are in, our volunteers can get samples to the right laboratory in an hour. As well as hundreds of samples, vaccines and occasionally medical equipment, we also pick and deliver donated human milk that helps premature babies live and thrive.
Donated Breast Milk
When a baby is born early, mum may not be able to produce milk straight away, so donor milk acts as a bridge to feed and protect the baby from complications, giving mum time to recover and establish her own milk supply.
Working in partnership with the Human Milk Foundation (HMF), the team at Norfolk Blood Bikes regularly transport urgently required breast milk for the benefit of sick or premature babies and mothers unable to breastfeed.
Before the East Anglian milk hub was set up, we rotated between milk banks at The Rosie Hospital at Addenbrookes in Cambridge, The Queen Charlotte Hospital in Chelsea and the Hearts Milk Bank (HMB) in Welwyn Garden City.
Having to travel greater distances, it meant that it would take longer to deliver the urgently required breast milk to hospitals.
The Human Milk Foundation was able to address this issue by establishing a regional Milk Bank hub at Hellesdon Hospital in Norwich. It was the first of its kind in East Anglia and only the second such hub in the UK.
This regional milk bank hub provides a storage location for screened donor breast milk, reducing our response time for urgent deliveries.
How it all comes together
Blood Lines : A thought provoking journey following blood from donation to transfusion.