The Mansfield Building Society has pledged £500 to Nottinghamshire Blood Bikes to help buy and adapt a new motorbike to enable the charity to extend its reach in to the north of the county.

Blood Bikes is a national charity that operates outside of normal NHS working to deliver blood for transfusion as well as breast milk.

The service is free for the NHS, significantly reducing the cost of using taxis.

The charity has created the Blood Bikes 100cc Club, which aims to attract £100 donations from 100 local businesses to help it raise £10,000 to invest in the new motorbike.

Peter Hauton a member of Nottinghamshire Blood Bikes and an organiser of the Blood Bikes 100cc Club, said: “We work hard to ensure we run as effectively as possible with many riders now having completed well over 100 journeys.

“We want to expand and need help from local businesses like The Mansfield to achieve our goals and help us help the NHS deliver its incredible service as efficiently as possible to more parts of the UK.”

The Nottinghamshire charity operates from 7pm to 6am, Monday to Friday, and 24 hours a day at weekends.

The charity relies solely on fundraising and donations from the public to cover basic running costs.

Richard Crisp, commercial development executive at the society, said: “We are proud to be one of the first members of the 100cc club and help the charity raise funds to invest in a much-needed service for the local community.

“We hope to support the charity’s current and future expansion plans as much as possible and would encourage other local businesses to do the same.”

To make a donation to Nottinghamshire Blood Bikes visit http://nottinghamshirebloodbikes.org/donate/ or to become a member of the Blood Bikes 100cc Club go to http://nottinghamshirebloodbikes.org/the-100-club/