Officers on poignant ride for fallen colleagues

A group of cycling police officers from Northamptonshire have taken part in a poignant ride in memory of their colleagues who have died while on duty.

The Police Unity Tour raises funds for Care of Police Survivors (Cops), a charity that looks after the relatives of fallen officers.

One participant said he wanted to show that his fallen fellow officer was still loved and remembered.

The tour involves hundreds of officers who start from different places in the country.

They make their way to the National Memorial Arboretum in Staffordshire, the home of the UK Police Memorial.

Each rider wears a bracelet showing the name of an officer who died while on duty.

PC Ian Rudkin's bracelet showed the name of Paul Keany, who died in 2020 after suffering a heart attack while serving as a custody officer.

He said: "Paul was a friend and a colleague - I'm proud to ride for him, I'm still in contact with his family, and it's a comfort to them to know that he's still loved and he's still remembered."

PC Lucy Sculthorpe's bracelet bore the name of Alex Prentice, who had a heart attack at work and died in 2022.

When she started taking part in the Police Unity Tour, PC Sculthorpe was "riding for people I'd never met and didn't know - a really important part of that was researching their history".

She said: "When Alex passed away, it just seemed a natural thing to ride for him.

"He was a very cheeky character, but he was also the most supportive friend you could ever want."

PC Lorna Clarke was riding for Tony Collins, who was on a helicopter which crashed into a Scottish nightclub in 2013.

They had met on a training course.

She said the cycle tour was "going to be painful, it's going to be physically and emotionally tough, and this is me acknowledging the mental pain that the families go through".

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