Saturday is generally a busy day on the Freewheelers blood bike. This one wasn't as busy as some, but it kept me on my toes. My first job, picking up samples from a mental health unit in Taunton for delivery to Musgrove Park Hospital, didn't come in until mid morning and the bad weather—strong winds and heavy rain—meant I didn't leave home straight away. I picked up from the mental health unit at 12:35pm and saw an SMS on my mobile requesting I contact the co-ordinator urgently. I was asked to skip the Taunton delivery and go straight to the medical assessment unit at Bridgwater hospital where there was an urgent blood sample to go to the labs at Musgrove.
Taunton to Bridgwater is only 12 miles, but battling through Saturday afternoon shopping traffic can be a nightmare. It took me 25 minutes to do the journey and I got held up several times in long queues at traffic lights. On arrival at Bridgwater I was told that the job was now an emergency so I called the co-ordinator to tell him I was going to do the journey on blue lights and sirens. It's at this point the adrenalin and faint feeling of dread kicks in. The former helps you to react to the hazards that you will encounter during the forthcoming journey, the latter acts as a balance to keep you safe and stop you doing anything stupid. Immediately outside the hospital I hit a red traffic light so sirens on, wait for vehicles to react and then through. 200 yards another red light and then a 2 mile straight road through the residential areas of Bridgwater to the motorway. From there it is a 7 mile blast down the busy M5 motorway, and then 12 sets of traffic lights to get to the hospital. I can't remember exactly, but about half of these were red so I had to proceed with extreme caution. UK law is exactly the same as the USA – if an emergency services vehicle has an accident going through a set of red lights, then the driver is 100% liable. The end result was I made Musgrove Park safely and in just 15 minutes. "Coming down" after an emergency run is difficult. The adrenaline stays in your system for a while so getting back on the bike immediately after isn't a good idea. I took a 30 minute break, had a drink from the hospital restaurant and then spent a few minutes outside in the brief spell of sunshine that had appeared between the rain showers.
Later in the evening I got a call to take some blood samples from West Mendip Hospital in Glastonbury to Musgrove Park. By this point the weather was terrible so I decided to go by car instead of bike. This was quite an eye-opener as it reminded me just why I ride a bike - the traffic was awful and the whole journey took me far longer than it would have if I had been on the bike.
Total time on the road 3h50m. Distance covered 149 miles.
