Local bikers raise £15,000 for Merseyside’s sickest patients

Local bikers raise £15,000 for Merseyside’s sickest patients

A group of local motorcycle enthusiasts has raised thousands of pounds to benefit some of the most seriously ill patients in Cheshire and Merseyside.

The Scarisbrick and District Armada Motorcycle Club raised £15,000 from fundraising events last year, including their two Honda C90 ‘Plop’ Enduro races, and has donated the money to the Trauma Unit at Liverpool’s Aintree University Hospital. 

Aintree is home to the Cheshire and Merseyside Major Trauma Centre, which provides major trauma services to 2.3m residents in the North West and Isle of Man. The department contains state-of-the-art equipment and facilities, which enables much quicker treatment for the most seriously injured patients. 

Graeme Young, from the S&D Armada Club, said: “Anyone involved in motorcycling will know someone who has needed hospital treatment following biking accidents, and we know what an incredible job trauma centres like the one at Aintree do. We’re delighted to have been able to make this donation.”

The money donated by the S&D Armada Club will be used to buy a number of items, including specialist kit which will allow the hospital to be involved in a national research study evaluating a revolutionary and potentially life-saving treatment that is being developed across the UK. The procedure, called Resuscitative Endovascular Balloon Occlusion (REBOA), is used to control severe bleeding and to temporarily stabilise the patient whilst they are resuscitated by the trauma team and prepared for rapid transfer into the operating theatre. The money will also be used to buy specialist chairs which will allow patients to sit out of bed earlier and assist in their rehabilitation and a specialist shower trolley which will allow patients with complex spinal injuries to be taken into the bathroom to have a full shower, which they are currently unable to do.

Julie Peacock, Major Trauma Operational Manager at Aintree, said: “We are so grateful to the S&D Armada Club for their generosity. We wanted to use this money to buy kit which we wouldn’t otherwise have the luxury of having and we decided on these pieces of equipment after lengthy discussions with our clinical teams. They will make a huge difference to so many of our patients while they are in our care.”