SERV is a registered charity that delivers blood, blood products, time-critical samples and human infant milk for premature babies between hospitals in Sussex free of charge. SERV volunteers are on call from 7pm till 6am, 365 nights a year and 24 hours a day over the weekend and all bank holidays. The riders and drivers, who generally use their own machines and pay for their own petrol, support the NHS, often delivering urgent blood products from the National Blood Transfusion Units to hospitals in the South East of England. Donor human milk is collected from local donors, transported to Harpenden where it is treated and then transported back to mothers with premature babies in the Sussex region.
   
    Our goal is to rise to the ever-increasing requests of support from the local NHS Trusts. In addition to supporting milkbanks, for the NHS Community Foundation Trust, we provide a free service to the children’s nursing teams in the Sussex area, delivering machinery, supplies and facilitating servicing of machines for children in long-term care in their home. This is particularly helpful to disadvantaged children who do not have access to transport to collect their supplies needed.

Why the community needs us
On a local level, we measure our progress by the number of times hospitals call us out at night to deliver emergency blood, blood products and samples. The whole population of Sussex benefits from our service, and has the ability to influence the nature of our service. In the financial year 03/2021 to 03/2022, SERV Sussex responded to 2400 individual requests for assistance using volunteers from all walks of life, regardless of race, gender, ethnic group, disability or sexual preference.

Our impact on the community
The free services SERV Sussex provides allows for re-deployment of much-needed funds for improved patient care and other essential facilities within the NHS. Each year, we have seen the demands on SERV increase and there is a need to spread the service across the county in response to a higher volume of requests from hospital trusts, milkbanks and the NHS Community Foundation Trust children's nursing teams. We have NO paid staff and are totally funded by public donation; we therefore spend a lot of time with public outreach projects and fund raising in the local community.

Milkbanking
Our expertise resulted in the charity being approached by midwives and milkbanks to collect and deliver human donor milk across the South-East. Through a group of enthusiastic and empathetic volunteers, we currently provide FREE support to Hearts milkbank; we collect untreated milk for onward transport to Harpenden and deliver milk to disadvantaged mothers at their homes if they are unable to get to the hospital. Giving breast milk to premature babies protects them against a life-threatening gut infection, necrotising enterocolitis, and helps their development.

We have now set up a milk hub in Sussex linked with Hearts milkbank.
The Impact of the Project: This has allowed us to expand our support of new mothers in the community who require donor human milk. The Sussex human donor milk hub will continue to allow us to store collected, donor milk for onward bulk transport to Hearts milkbank; local collection will utilise both volunteer’s and SERV fleet motorbikes, with onward bulk transport using our fleet of hybrid vehicles. The SERV vehicle will return with treated donor milk to be stored in separate freezers, prior to distribution to local mothers or local neonatal units using motorbikes.

Why they need our service: Donated breastmilk helps babies in need to get the best start in life. It contains all the nutrients (at least 400) that a baby needs and contains hormones and disease-fighting compounds which cannot be found in formula milk. Some babies are allergic to formula milk. If their mothers cannot temporarily provide enough breastmilk for whatever reason, these babies urgently need donated milk. Breastmilk is also required by premature babies to protect them against a life-threatening gut infection.

Plan and expected results: Our success will be measured by increased survival of premature babies and supporting mothers in the local community. Donor milk will be providing essential food and protecting babies against a life-threatening gut infection, necrotising enterocolitis, helping their development in the long term.