An extraordinary and touching weekend with Staffordshire Police, as part of the Lighting the Lakes event. This involves police officers, and staff, retired police officers and police friends from all over the country, converging in the Lake District to scale different Wainwright peaks at dusk, to light flares at 3am in memory of fallen colleagues and to raise funds for the COPS Charity (Care of Police Survivors).
I was blown away by the courage and grit of PC Claire Bond who, having sustained terrible leg injuries in the line of duty in 2018, not only managed to reach the top of Il Bell, but also raised amazing amounts of money for COPS.
A truly memorable occasion, crawling out of our tiny tents at 3am, lighting our flares and seeing the 360 degree panorama of the answering pinpricks of light from hills all around us. The bacon butties from the Police Federation Bus at 6am after a long descent were especially welcome.
For more info on this fantastic annual event please see: www.lightthelakes.org.uk