SOS Bus Luton

(Image front row L- R) Robbie Dunsby, Chief Supt Colbourne, Mohammed Azada and Ade Ige

SOS Bus volunteer Mohammed Azad recieving his Bravery Award from Chief Supt Colbourne – Well done !

Chief Superintendent Mike Colbourne of Bedfordshire Police presented three brave members of the public with Commendations today for their bravery and community spirit.  We are extremely proud to say that one of these men, Mohammed Azad, is a vibrant and hard working volunteer for the SOS Bus Luton!

At 0050 on Saturday 5 June 2010, eleven people were involved in a large fight that broke out in Manchester Street, which is in the centre of Luton’s busy night time economy. At that time of night the town was busy with people visiting pubs and clubs.

Ade Ige and Robbie Dunsby, two taxi marshals who were working nearby, together with SOS Bus volunteer, Mohammed Azad, immediately tried to calm the situation. Police were called but were unable to attend immediately.

Until officers arrived, Ade, Robbie and Mohammed tried to separate two very violent groups.  One man produced a hammer and began threatening other people, striking another man in the face. Despite being very aware of the weapon being used, Ade, Robbie and Mohammed continued to work at calming the situation and split up the groups in the hope of preventing others from becoming injured.

When police arrived, the man with the hammer made off with Ade and Robbie discretely following him, watching where he hid the weapon. They passed this information to police officers and the man, together with two others, was later arrested.

Due to their courageous actions and support they have given the police one man has been charged with affray and another charged with affray and possession of a deadly weapon.

From all the SOS Bus team we would like to say congratulations! PHOTOS TO FOLLOW!

Mohammed Azad

With thanks to Yates Luton for having two SOS Bus Charity boxes on their bar – this last month they have collected a massive £28.92! This money will be a massive help to the project, hopefully there will be more to come!

The SOS Bus team were delighted to receive an award from Bedfordshire Police for their contribution to increasing public confidence just in time for national volunteer week! We would all like to thank Mandy Cranston and everyone else at Beds Police for thinking of us!

Well done team!

I am very pleased to announce that after 2 nominations (Best Volunteers and Making communities safer) at the Pride In Luton and South Beds awards the SOS Bus won a Highly Commended award for the Making community safer.

Thanks to everyone for all their hard work!

R - L Mo Azad, Jacqueline Dowsing, Carly Stokes and Jonathan Ray

See the video here

Come and see the Bus at Wardown park this Saturday 8th May and get a FREE health check on board!

In partnership with Active Luton’s Healthy lifestyle team you can come and get a FREE health check on board the SOS Bus at this weekends Take 3 4 life event at Wardown park. Event starts at 12:00pm – 5:00pm. For more information click here or call 01582 547850

Adrien Bray of Innov8 Recruitment has kindly offered to pay for the SOS Bus to get a solar panel fitted to trickle charge the batteries when it’s not being used. This is a massive boost for the bus and the project on a whole so we’d like to say a massive thank you to Adrien and Robert Shimmin one of our volunteers who made it happen!

Photo’s to follow shortly!

click here to visit their website

Congratulations to the following people for winning in the SOS Bus Raffle:

Ken Grant, Roy Greening, Davey, Emma Morgan, Chris, Bridget Flannery, Sonia Blackett, Tabby Adrees, Gabby, Mary, Cherie Denton, Angela Bartalis, Linda Bennett, Patricia, Robyn, Jo Bigg, Mohammed, Martin Pantlin, Jocelyn Goodman, Emma Hunter, Wendy, Anette, Linda, Cathy Stone, Sandra Comerasony, Paula Morrison, Kathy, Tim Archibold, Laura, David Biles.

Thank you to Aelia Duty Free, Vauxhall, Icon Hotel and the Police Unit at Luton Airport.

GRAND TOTAL RAISED £126.63

All the money raised from the raffle will go towards keeping the SOS Bus going!

The first week went fantastically well for Luton’s SOS Bus, St Patricks day was the Buses first night and it saw a number of people throughout the night. Here’s what Graeme Tolliday of East of England Ambulance had to say about it:

“During the SOS bus’s first shift 5 patients were dealt with by the volunteers, 3 of these where brought to the unit in the vivaro following call outs from street pastors and CCTV. Of those 5 patients 2 where stitched up in the bus, 2 where dealt with a lot of TLC from volunteers and 1 required an ambulance transfer to the L&D.

In real terms each of these calls would have received a 999 response from ourselves and would have all been transported to hospital for further treatment or care, thus 4 ambulance journeys where saved on the 1^st night of the scheme.

I must also add that the volunteers carried out all of the initial treatments provided to a very high standard of which we are certainly proud, a successful first night.”

On behalf of all the SOS Bus team I would like to thank Graeme, Stuart and their team of paramedics for their on going support.