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Life Saving Delivery, How One Man Combines Delivering Life Saving Blood And Teaching People To Drive
SERV (Service by Emergency Rider Volunteers) other wise known as the ‘Blood Runners’, is made up of volunteer bikers & riders who are despatched to deliver urgently needed medical items such as Blood, Blood Products, Biological Samples, Vaccines, Medical Notes, X-Rays, Scans and Donor Breast Milk to hospitals all over the South of England, wherever and whenever its needed. The service has saved thousands of lives by transporting blood to patients who need it urgently. RED Driving School instructor Danny Bateman teaches pupils to drive during the day and in the evenings and at weekends he is a blood runner for SERV. We spoke to Danny to find out how his career as a driving instructor helps him fit in his commitments with SERV and to learn his thoughts on how his charity work has also helped his career. Obviously you spend a lot of time driving, what do you enjoy about it? “I have always enjoyed being out on the road. I originally trained in computers more than 20 years ago but decided working in an office wasn’t for me and I have driven or ridden for a living in one way or another ever since.” How far do you travel while you’re working for SERV? “The furthest we normally go from the Northampton area is Reading or Ascot, we have also on occasion, delivered Samples and Patient Notes to Great Ormond Street.” How did you get involved with SERV? “I met a guy from one of the other SERV groups at a motorcycle rally and was impressed with what they did, I then discovered there was a new start up group near where I live, in Northamptonshire, so I joined up, and the rest is history!” What really inspired you about the work SERV do and what do you enjoy about it? “My children have benefited from the care provided by the NHS. This is one way I can give something back.” Delivering blood to hospitals must be fairly stressful, how do you think your experiences as a driving instructor prepares you for it? “My skills & attitude as an advanced driver are very important when carrying out duties for SERV. It’s very easy to get carried away, go that bit quicker, cut that corner etc, but in truth, there’s no point in speeding and taking risks, only to crash on the last bend before the hospital. It’s more important that the consignment gets there safely. Someone’s life may well depend on it.” How do you think working with SERV helps improve your skills as a driving instructor? “Working with the media and speaking to the public for SERV has certainly helped improve my confidence and communication skills as an instructor. I carry out driving assessments for new SERV members which, I couldn’t do without my instructor training skills. So I often apply skills I’ve learnt from one role to the other. I certainly think my career makes me a better contributor to SERV. For me RED and SERV compliment each other really well.” How does being a driving instructor help you fit in your commitments with SERV “I don’t work weekends so I have Saturday and Sunday free to work on SERV. If anything urgent comes up in the week, which it often does, I can easily re-arrange my diary to fit in the extra commitments.” Working with like minded individuals towards a common cause can be really rewarding. It gives you the chance to strengthen the skills you use at work and develop relationships that can last a life time. Driving instructors have the chance to work on extra curricular activities that other people simply don’t have the time for. Being in charge of your own time and diary means you can arrange your working life to fit in other commitments. All of this combined with the excellent and transferable communication and people skills developed on the job puts driving instructors in a truly unique and rewarding position to give something back and really make a difference. Article Directory: http://www.articledashboard.com This article was written by Laura Harris of RED Instructor Training who provide driving instructor training all across the UK. |
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