The crew

Riley Blue’s crew are David Pipes and Gael Hepburn and we live in Chesterfield on the edge of the Peak District.

David is retired. Chairman of the Patient Participation Group at Royal Primary Care, the primary care division of Chesterfield Royal Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, he has a keen interest in the provision of primary healthcare in the area.

Gael, a canny Scot from Aberdeen, is a civil servant and Riley Blue’s crew chief. She is navigator, quartermaster, sweetie unwrapper (a very important role) and arbitrator in the event of any disputes, i.e. she always wins.

The crew also includes two.. um.. teddy bears: ‘Riley’ and ‘YT’. They’re our our mascots and our consciences and they travel everywhere that Riley Blue goes (they even have their own passports). On LeJoG they’ll be accompanied on the back seat by ‘Frank’, a third bear who has a very special purpose…