It’s a busy time of year for the island’s medical services but supporting them at any opportunity is local charity, the Rob Vine Fund. If you’ve not heard of it, you’ve likely seen members of the organisation hiding in plain sight, especially during the TT.

‘It’s been a challenging TT this year. The weather makes things difficult, people get tired, there’s a lot of waiting but we’re always on hand to provide the best medical assistance possible whenever it’s needed.’

That’s Stuart Greaves, he’s a Director of the Rob Vine Fund and has been with the organisation for more than 32 years.

‘The Rob Vine Fund was set up back in 1985 in memory of TT rider Rob Vine, who tragically lost his life during that year’s races,’ Stuart tells me when I ask about the charity’s origins. ‘Since its conception, the charity’s purpose has stayed the same – to provide medical equipment, pre-hospital medical and rescue care, and medical training around the island for a wide range of motorsport events - the only thing that has changed is the cost of providing this support.’

And they do provide a lot of support to say the least. Allow me to elaborate.

During motorsport events, the Rob Vine Fund will provide:

  • 150 Immediate Care Bags – These provide medical equipment for basic first aid. Inside you’ll find orange pouches which are used by marshals who have had incident management and advanced life support training. You also find green pouches, which are for doctors or paramedics who are members of Manx Road Racing Medical Services and Hogg Motorsport Association Motorsport Medical Technicians and other volunteer medical personnel.
  • 150 Scoop Stretchers and Red Head Rests
  • 3 Frontline Phil Hogg Rescue Ambulances
  • Medical equipment for the 2 Rescue Helicopter Ambulances
  • Medical equipment for the 5 Response Cars

And that’s just the tip of the iceberg. The medical equipment, which is placed at 150 marshal locations around the TT course, comes to more than £300,000, and £30,000 has to be paid annually to ensure all the items are up-to-date and replaced when they no longer meet medical ethical standards.

This all relies on public donations.

‘We’re incredibly grateful for the incredibly generous donations we get but it is getting more and more difficult. There’s a lot of competition in the charity market and only so much money to go around.’

The organisation only has three part time paid staff members, the remaining 20 are all volunteers.

‘As an island we have limited resources and, unlike the UK, our ambulance services can’t call on help from other counties. That’s where we come in. Another one of our tasks is to provide volunteer crews to support with emergency aid and things like patient transport.’

The charity has extended itself outside of motorsport events, utilising its skills during times of crisis, like the Covid pandemic, to help in the community. But the organisation needs donations to make sure it can continue providing medical support to ensure our local services don’t end up overrun. It’s also looking to recruit.

‘We’re looking for new people to join the Rob Vine Fund.’ Stuart tells me enthusiastically. ‘All you really need to get involved is have an interest in motorsport and a first aid qualification, we then expand your medical training through the charity, which includes things like rescue ambulance training and even some firefighting training.’

Looking to the future, Stuart hopes to see AI start to be utilised in a way that helps deliver more realistic training for medical professionals who haven’t experienced motorsport emergences.

‘It would be great to use AI to help give doctors and paramedics who haven’t worked on a race circuit before some immersive training to give them a more realistic sense of what they could be faced with.’

It’s clear that even after 32 years with the Rob Vine Fund and even despite the bad weather that comes with the territory of their work, the charity remains incredibly close to Stuart’s heart.

‘I’m incredibly passionate about what we all do here, the ethos of the charity is excellent, and I feel very privileged to be able to put something back into the island’s community.’

If you would like to find out more about either donating or joining the Rob Vine Fund team as a volunteer, then head on over to https://robvinefund.im/ or the Rob Vine Fund Facebook page.