Tributes paid to fallen colleagues after police charity bike ride

Zoë Wakefield and colleagues rode from the police training headquarters to the National Memorial Arboretum in Staffordshire, raising much needed funds for the Care of Police Survivors charity as part of the Police Unity Tour.

Zoë, who has taken part for three years now, said: ‘It is always really special. It’s the most amazing experience. It’s so lovely to be able to do something for such a brilliant charity, that gives so much support to these families. When you’re riding in memory of a colleague as well, you might be struggling to get up a hill but you look at that band on your wrist bearing that officer’s name and you think; “This is why I’m doing this. In memory of those officers”.’

The tour has raised more than £1m since its inception, an amount that has a ‘huge’ impact on families, Zoë said.

She added: ‘When you listen to the families, the people that get up and speak at the memorial service and they talk about how much support they’ve had from the charity, they say that this is the club that no one wants to be a part of, but actually the support that they get from other people who understand what it’s like to be in their situation.’

The ride was especially poignant after PC Dan Golding was killed in a collision last month.

She added: ‘Dan has only just transferred from the Met. But he was a Hampshire officer as far as we are concerned.’