During the 1985 Senior TT Races, Rob Vine, a regular TT competitor from Dover in Kent, lost his life at the Black Dub.

At the time, Dr David B. Stevens MBE was the Chief Medical Officer for the TT & Manx Grand Prix races. In the same year, Dr Stevens & the family of Rob Vine established a Gift Account at Noble’s Hospital.

In March 2005 Dr Stevens retired as a Noble’s Hospital Consultant and The Rob Vine Fund was set up as Registered Charity No 954 [Isle of Man]. This was done with the cooperation and advice from the DHSS, Attorney General’s Office & Advocate Neil Hanson.

The Rob Vine Fund is also a Company Limited by Guarantee and The Hogg Motorsport Association is a registered Business Name.

Purposes of the Fund

The purposes of the Fund has remained unchanged for over 30 years. The Rob Vine Funds mission is to provide medical/rescue equipment and training for all doctors, paramedics and others involved in two, three and four wheeled motorsport events on the Isle of Man, the road racing capital of the world.

The Rob Vine Fund has aided in the following:

• Supplying the, NEW for 2023, Immediate Care Rucksacks at over 130 marshalling locations on the TT course. These provide medical equipment for basic first aid in orange pouches, by Incident Management trained marshals and advanced life support, in green pouches, for doctors or paramedics, as members of Manx Roadracing Medical Services and Hogg Motorsport Association Motorsport Medical Technicians.
• Yellow orthopaedic scoop stretchers and red head rests at all the same marshalling points.
• The emergency resuscitation, medical and other equipment used in the rescue helicopters, response cars, ambulances and Grandstand areas for the TT Races, Manx Grand Prix and Billown course events.
• Financial support for the equipment and the training costs for the Hogg Motorsport Association which provides one MSUK (Motor Sports United Kingdom) licensed race and rally rescue ambulance and two other ambulances, all of which are fully equipped front line ambulances. The ambulances are staffed by 19 unpaid volunteer members, most of whom are MSUK licensed rescue crew.

This long term commitment by the Rob Vine Fund requires an expensive rolling financial programme, for the provision of medical/rescue equipment and training. With over £250,000 worth of equipment on & around the TT Course, in the rescue helicopters and the three Phil Hogg Motorsport Ambulances, the fund has to use approximately 10% of the fund, about £25,000 per year, in order to ensure all items are replaced when they reach the use by date. This follows the guidelines for the current best medical practice.