Fundraiser to save blood-carrying motorbike

SERV Sussex is a voluntary service which transports urgent medical items across the county

A charity is hoping to raise £10,000 to repair a specialist motorcycle, known as a blood bike, after it was badly damaged in a hit and run.

Service by Emergency Rider Volunteers (SERV Sussex) provides transport services for blood and other urgent medical items to hospitals across Sussex.

Harry Lewis, the charity's chair, said the bike must be repaired rather than replaced.

Motorcycles do not "come ready-made as a blood bike" and it would need to be converted by an approved supplier, he said.

Speaking to BBC Radio Sussex, Mr Lewis said: "If there was a new one available we'd have probably gone down that route and bought a nice, new shiny one."

He said additions that needed to be made to the bike, such as emergency lights and high-visibility graphics, cost "quite a lot of money".

The deadline to raise the funds to get the bike back on the road ends at 15:37 GMT on Monday.

Set up in 1981, SERV Sussex is volunteer-led and funded by charitable donations

SERV Sussex enables hospitals to "focus their resources on patient care by reducing transport bills", the charity said on its website.

The team of volunteer riders and drivers transport items such as blood, plasma and human milk for premature babies.

The free service operates at night on weekdays and 24 hours a day on weekends and bank holidays.