Myerscough volunteer blood biker back on the road after attack

Niall Miller, who is currently studying for a foundation degree in Location Photography, has been an advanced rider for North West Blood Bikes for a year. Earlier this month two people approached him when he visiting a friend and tried to take his Triumph Tiger 800. Niall fought them off but they stole the storage box and damaged the windshield, the instrument dials and the lights.

A JustGiving appeal set up by the charity has raised the money needed to repair the bike and get Niall back on the road, but now the 20-year-old from Leyland, wants to use the incident to raise awareness of the vital work the charity do.

Neil McCall, press officer for North West Blood Bikes, said: ‘’Two people approached him and tried to take his bike off him.

“They tried to grab his helmet and keys off him and pushed the bike over but he was not going to allow them to have it. They stole the storage box from the back of the bike and ran off

“To be honest, we’re overwhelmed by the response. People with garage space have offered it for him to go and fix the bike and people have offered spare windshields and even to work on the bike to repair the damage for him.”

North West Blood Bikes provides a volunteer-run out-of-hours courier service for the NHS by taking blood, plasma, platelets, samples, medication, medical files and donor breast milk between hospitals.

Niall can’t ride any of the charity’s fleet bikes as he is under the insurance age threshold so is off the road while his bike is repaired.

Niall said: ‘’I feel I owe a lot of people a big thank you. It was safe to say after what happened I had lost a lot of my faith in humanity but I can say thanks to everyone's support I can tell there is a lot more good than I thought in the world.

‘’We have been completely taken back by the sheer amount of people willing to help me out and all the kind words of support we have received. I wanted to thank everyone that has donated, offered to help, given words of support and even offered me use of their bike.

‘’I want to thank you all from the bottom of my heart and to let you all know any of the money that is not spent on repairs will be donated to North West Blood Bikes.’’

For more details about North West Blood Bikes, go to http://www.nwbb-lancs.org/