AN Orford business has given Merseyside and Cheshire Blood Bikes a helping hand in getting its newest addition road ready.

Keith Foxall, who runs Affordable Signs Warrington part-time from his home on Greenwood Crescent, and Ian O'Connor were approached by the charity to install Hi Vis signage on its new Honda 750D scooter.

Vice chairman of Merseyside and Cheshire Blood Bikes, Simon Dennett, said the charity was keen to use a small business rather than a national supplier to help transform the bike, which costs around £9,500.

He said: "We are helping hospitals, which have local people in them and when local businesses find out what we do, they always go that extra mile to do a special job for us.

"And in turn, we're keeping the money that the community has donated to help our service, in our community by supporting local businesses. It's a big circle that we are very keen to keep.

"Normally when you have a motorcycle, if the police use it, you can buy a graphics kit for it. But the police don't use scooters so the difficult thing was this had to be designed from scratch. We contacted a lot of companies and everyone was concerned it would take too much work.

"But we spoke to Keith and he was excited from the off and he has completely took over the design himself.

"He has done an incredible job of it and it's definitely not something an amateur could do. He did a job that far exceeded our expectations.

"It's going to make a big difference to us."

The scooter, which was put into use from Monday, July 2, took five days to complete and had around 135 individual pieces measured, designed and applied.

The bike itself, is said to be much smaller and fuel efficient than the charities other vehicles, which Simon hopes will encourage more women and older people to get involved.

It is hoped the scooter will also have a dash cam, tracking device and warning lights installed depending on future funding.

Forty-five-year-old Keith said: "Never before have I been asked to do something so important. These guys save lives.

"So with great pleasure, I said yes. After many hours of working it out, I think I cracked it and everyone loves it.

"I would like to thank the Blood Bike guys for trusting me with such a great honour and keep up the good work."

The organisation transports blood, plasma, samples, vaccines and donor breast milk around hospitals in the region every day of the year.