Hi, so – yes, we do lots of riding and yes lots of riding with groups. We ride both in the UK and in many other parts of the world eg Africa and Australia – to pick two pretty distant, out in the sticks examples. And what if the worst happens and we have a crash or one of our buddies hits the dust? Well, when you’re in the middle of the Namibian desert or at the side of a road in Mozambique or floating in a swamp in the Okavango Delta, you just have to deal with it – fix it – or at least keep ‘it’ good till you can get more help. In the UK, we’re all pretty confident that if the worst happens, you’ll get expert medical help in a matter of minutes – one phone call and your already moving the situation in the right direction. But what if that time window wasn’t minutes, but hours and possibly days? Can be a bit scary eh?
Hence our connection with Ian at Bespoke Medical Training Ltd. We decided that we needed more than just the ‘St Johns Ambulance’ type office First Aider course. We met up with Ian Greenwood, the owner of Bespoke Medical Training – and a biker Paramedic (Big respect eh!) and we got Ian to develop a course specifically for us, for our team. Something that took all the different situations into context – something that got us into a ‘capable’ zone, where we could react professionally and competently to an incident.
Ian took us out to the woods… Yes! The course was actually ran out in a beautiful part of England, a country house was our back drop and woods, streams, muddy banks and tracks were our ‘scenes’ for the training. Having spent some time in the beautiful farmhouse – check it out here:
http://www.groomes.co.uk/
We then went outside to rehearse what we’d learnt. We’d already explained to Ian, in great detail, where we go and the likely type of incident or being direct, accident, that we’d encounter. Ian took this information and developed a spot on course that dealt with the kind of injuries, but also the ‘incident scene’ ie. what the scene would look like – bikes strewn all over the place, luggage, clothes etc. We went through role play to get everyone into ‘making safe’ the surrounding area of the incident. Dealing with this side of things is equally as important as the injured party, else you could have a second accident on your hands within minutes.
The role play was fun – and as you can imagine, a bit crazy, with our crew taking the micky and a fair bit of banter going on. But you know what, we really learnt stuff, and we all came away feeling more equipment to deal with potential disasters. From small injuries to broken legs and big open wounds, we covered them all in an enjoyable, practical way.
Ian was also a great consultant with us regarding our Africa medical kit. He went through all our requirements in great detail and set the wheels in motion for our new kit – both our bike carried kit (for me and Billy) and our car based main kit for the two 4×4 support vehicles. We all carried out some extra learning on his online teaching site and after some ‘testing’ online questions, we were all issued with a certificate.
In summary, we feel that all our motorcycle crew are probably the most experienced and professional set of people in the World! (Clarkson eh!) and from the medical perspective, they’re trained up and ready for action – but hope we get none! But on top of all that – remember, we have with us our own trained surgeon, as with all our trips, having your own doctor on board gives you that extra comfort blanket.
For more information about Bespoke Medical Training – contact Ian on 0330 333 4949 or info@bespoke-mt.co.uk and check out their website here http://www.bespoke-mt.co.uk/ – Tell Ian Charley sent you… and you might get an extra lump of sugar in your tea!
All for now – I better go back and get more filming done for Extreme Frontiers South Africa… got the ride in on Sunday… hope to see you there!
Charley and the crew!
You can check out the video here 
