London hospital charity launches £650k Safe Cycling Appeal

A medical charity with ties to a London hospital where hundreds of seriously injured cyclists have been treated has formally launched a Safe Cycling Appeal to raise an initial sum of £650,000.

Barts and The London Charity says that the money will fund research into the causes of injuries suffered by cyclists, help improve emergency treatment and rehabilitation of victims, and how to prevent casualties in the first place.

At the end of January, the charity hosted a seminar chaired by broadcaster Jon Snow, who is also president of national cyclists’ organisation, CTC, and which addressed the question: “Can advances in medicine and research at Barts Health impact the number of killed or seriously injured people from cycling incidents?”

The charity, linked to the Royal London Hospital – home to London’s biggest trauma centre, where hundreds of seriously injured cyclists have been treated in the last decade – has now put full details of the seminar, including videos of the presentations, on its website.

As we reported earlier this month, one of the topics addressed was the potential introduction of a database costing £130,000 to develop of incidents in which cyclists had been seriously injured.

The charity, which is linked to the Royal London Hospital, home to London’s biggest trauma centre and which has treated hundreds of seriously injured cyclists in the last decade, has now put full details of the seminar, including videos of the presentations, on its website.

There is also a dedicated page giving details of each of the projects for which funding is being sought.

The charity says:

For every person killed on our roads, countless others are injured and the shattering knock-on effect of these preventable events cannot be measured.

We are in a unique position to raise funds to support immediate and long term innovations. Our initial target is £650,000, 100% of which will go directly to improve our understanding of why injury happens, impact emergency treatment and patient rehabilitation, and inform effective injury prevention strategies.

These issues affect everyone. Encouraging and making cycling safer has significant and wide-reaching benefits for ALL road users… Recent research shows that the NHS would save £250 million a year if we completed one in ten journeys by bicycle, with the cost of treating heart disease, diabetes, strokes and cancers falling by 5%.

You can make a donation to the Safe Cycling Appeal by following this link.