'Cops and robbers' on the run to support Broomfield Hospital
Essex Police officers and staff will be on the run on
Sunday, April 18 in a cops and robbers team at the London
Marathon.
Chief Supt Jed Stopher will be leading a squad of nine runners from
the Essex force who will be aiming to raise more than £12,000 for
Broomfield Hospital in Chelmsford.
The squad will be joined by two officers from the Greater
Manchester force and an officer from Northern Constabulary.
Most of the team will be in uniform but two will be dressed as
robbers who will be chased around the 26.2 mile course.
The Essex team has run in uniform at the London event several times
before and have a knack of attracting attention from the
media.
Jed said: "Every year we somehow manage to get interviewed by the
BBC reporters around the course and in the past we have been
interviewed on the run by celebrities including Seb Coe and Steve
Cram.
"We have also been featured in photographs published in national or
regional newspapers.”
The team last ran the marathon in 2009 when they raised £10,000 to
help to equip an intensive care unit at Broomfield Hospital with
advanced life-saving equipment.
This year they will be raising money towards a fund to buy
specialist equipment for a special intensive care baby unit at the
hospital. Some of the items of equipment needed include intensive
care incubators costing £30,600 each, ventilators costing £20,500
and breathing monitors costing £520 each. So far the team has about
£9,000 pledged.
Jed, a divisional commander based at police headquarters in
Chelmsford, will be running his tenth marathon. He is keen to
do as much as possible to support the hospital after his mother,
then aged a young 73, was taken seriously ill in 2008 with a
complete organ failure. She was treated at the Broomfield ICU and
made a good recovery.
The rest of the team are: Sgt Gerry Parker, based at Stanway, Pc
Kirsty Potterton, based at Boreham, Dave Fogerty, formerly of the
media department, PCSO Al Barley, based at Chelmsford who will be
running his 57th Marathon, Pc Dave Hiscock based at Boreham, Sgt
Matt Hylands, based at Stansted Airport, Sgt Matt Garrett based at
Boreham and Julia Jeapes who works at police HQ.
They are all being sponsored by relatives, friends, work colleagues
and a number of major businesses around Essex.
Prizes have also been donated for a raffle and the team is holding
a draw for guessing the time nearest their finishing time.
Jed added: "I know that many people have sponsored us in the past
and that the credit crunch is also biting, but the ICU is a
life-saver and it saves babies’ lives.”
Sponsors can make donations on the team’s Just Giving website
at www.justgiving.com/Essex-Police-Marathon-team-2011.
