Today five Blood Bikes groups took part in a national relay.

Beginning with Blood Bikes Scotland in Kirkcaldy down to Berwick-upon-Tweed where it was handed over to Northumbria Blood Bikes. It was then transported down to Wetherby and handed over to Derbyshire Blood Bikes who took it down to Northampton. At the last handover one sample was relayed with Norfolk Blood Bikes, who took it to Laboratory Medicine in Norwich, and the other two were relayed with Serv Herts & Beds. One was taken to The Halo Building, in London, and the other was taken to Charing Cross Hospital, in London.

You may wonder why these relays take place in the first place; sometimes samples require testing that only certain laboratories can carry out due to specialist nature of some rarer conditions.

The two London sample deliveries were for proteins and hormones to be analysed for diagnosis and management of some of the rarer cancers. Monitoring concentrations can give Doctors a heads-up if treatment is working or if cancer may be coming back.  
 
The Norwich sample delivery is for the investigation of a young patient who has had repeated admissions to hospital with a racing heart and an unusually low concentrations of an electrolyte. All the common causes have been ruled out and the patient may have a rare genetic condition. Specialist scientists in Norwich are running the only UK service for measuring the hormone at the root of this condition.

All completed completely free of charge for the NHS by Blood Bike volunteers.