SELFLESS bikers who ride across south Cumbria delivering vital samples from hospitals to laboratories free of charge have been commended after a record-breaking year.

The group, known as the North West Blood Bikes, who cover the Lancashire and Lakes area, recently completed their 30,000th trip as they celebrated covering 36,000 miles in 2016 - the equivalent of travelling one-and-a-half times around the globe.

Around 70 riders use their own bikes and give up their free time to ferry blood samples, patient notes, breast milk and important medication from hospitals across the South Lakes and Lancashire area, including Furness General Hospital in Barrow.

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Great causes share in record Keswick to Barrow total

Steve Dunstan, who is the north area manager for the group, has been involved with the Blood Bikes for three-and-a-half years.

He has seen the charity grow in size and responsibility during that period - going from completing 800 runs a year to 1,000 runs a month in 2016.

Mr Dunstan said: "We were struggling when we first started to provide a service because we didn't have enough riders but now we have and, over the Christmas period, we all did a number of shifts and that shows that we have the right people who want to go out and do the job they signed up for.

"We've done some special runs over Christmas, taking newborn blood spot test samples to hospitals in Manchester and Newcastle and this desperately needs to be transported so it can be analysed."

It's estimated that the blood bikers' efforts in 2016 saved the North area a £115,000 in taxi fares.

However, Mr Dunstan admits that none of the group's achievements would have been possible without the avid fundraising which is carried out throughout the year.

The 66-year-old said: "We do a lot of our own fundraisers but we get a generous amount of support from others and we depend on donations from people like Masons, Rotary clubs and even other ordinary bikers to keep going.

"People will often slip £10 into our hands and we have collection tins in pubs and various other places which often get filled up.

"It all adds up with the small change that we get and, for every pound that we receive in donations, we save the NHS about £15."

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Great causes share in record Keswick to Barrow total

Chairman of the group, Paul Brooks, said: "There are Blood Bike groups all over the UK, but NWBB Lancs and Lakes is by far the largest and busiest group.

"In our first year we were called out 812 times, we are now averaging 10,000 call outs per year - imagine how much the hospitals in the North West would have spent on taxis or couriers.

"We have covered mileages, which would have taken us round the world several times, but we do it for free."

To cap off an outstanding year for the Blood Bikes, the group were also rewarded for their generosity with a National Lottery award as they were voted as the UK's best health project for 2016.