Sussex charity's blood bike damaged after 'hit and run' collision; police appeal for witnesses amid £30k damage

SERV Sussex – a Worthing-based charity which has volunteers across the county – provides a ‘free, rapid and reliable means’ of transporting emergency blood products, patient notes, time-critical laboratory samples and test results to hospitals at night, on request.

For the NHS Community Foundation Trust in Sussex, the charity currently provides a free service to the children’s nursing teams, delivering machinery, supplies and facilitating servicing of machines for children in long-term care in their home.

The vital, voluntary organisation has taken a big financial hit after a road traffic collision outside the secretary Simon Morley’s home in Southwick.

At around 10pm on Friday, September 1, a van is reported have collided with two bikes in Southwick Street.

“One of our bikes was badly damaged in a hit-and-run,” SERV Sussex wrote on a Crowdfunding page.

"The bike was parked up at the time so luckily the rider was OK. The costs of getting the bike back on the road is substantial and as a charity, we need help to reach this aim. Any funds raised will be used to buy the parts required and pay for the labour needed for this project.”

Speaking to Sussex World, Mr Morley his personal motorcycle – his main method of transport – was also left with substantial damage.

“The driver failed to stop but CCTV details have been supplied to the police,” the charity secretary said.

"The bloodbike has been written off by the insurance company after having £16,000 pounds damage. The bespoke bikes are no longer available so we want to fix the bike to get it back in service; the settlement has left the charity out of pocket by a large sum so we have set up the Crowdfunder to help us.”

Mr Morley said he was startled by a ‘big bang’ on the night of the incident.

“Someone knocked on the door and said someone has ran into your bikes,” he said. “I was totally shocked.

“We are a local charity purely run by volunteers. It’s taken a bike off the road. Most of us use our own bikes.

"We have six bikes spread out all over the county – on call every night between 7pm and 6am, 24 hours on weekends and bank holidays. With volunteers in places like Worthing, Chichester and Hastings.”

The secretary said the blood bike that been damaged was donated by someone who died from brain cancer as a ‘named legacy bike’.

He added: “We are hoping to fix it up but they did £16,000 worth of damage. Including my bike it’s £30,000 grand worth of damage.

“If we were collecting outside the supermarket every day it would take two months to raise the money. That’s assuming everyone donated money.”

Mr Morley said CCTV footage has been given to the police.

A spokesperson for Sussex Police said: “Police received a report of a car colliding with two parked motorcycles in Southwick Street, Southwick, at around 10pm on Friday, September 1.

“The vehicle then left the scene without stopping.

“An investigation is underway to identify and locate any suspects. Anyone who witnessed the incident, or has relevant video footage, is asked to contact police online or via 101, quoting serial 878 of 03/09.”

SERV Sussex’s services are carried out free of charge on a daily basis by volunteers.

A spokesperson said: “We need a reliable vehicle to support these activities. Our expertise resulted in the charity being approached by midwives and milkbanks to collect and deliver human donor milk across the South-East.

“Approximately 90 male and female SERV volunteers from all walks of life are long-serving (average five to ten years, longest 25 years), and range from 21-75 years; we support the population regardless of race, gender, disability or sexual preference.”