Officers begin charity ride for fallen colleagues

Police officers have started a 200-mile (322km) charity bike ride to raise money for families of colleagues who have died in the line of duty.

The 23 riders from Northamptonshire Police are taking part in The Police Unity Tour in aid of Care of Police Survivors (COPS), a charity that looks after the relatives of fallen officers.

They set off from the Northern Accommodation Building in Kettering at about 07:25 BST and were due to arrive at the National Memorial Arboretum in Staffordshire, the home of the UK Police Memorial, on Sunday morning.

Taking part for the first time, PC Georgia Weall said: "It's going to be a very emotional weekend."

The Police Unity Tour brings together hundreds of officers from forces across the UK, who begin the ride from different locations before travelling to the memorial.

The Northamptonshire chapter has raised just under £13,000 this year and almost £50,000 since 2022 to support the charity.

This year's ride is the first since the death of PC Faizaan Najeeb in 2025, who was struck by a blue VW Polo while attending a crash on Station Road in Raunds, Northamptonshire.

PC Weall said she was on duty when PC Najeeb was killed and although she did not know him personally, she said hearing the news was "probably the worst night" of her career.

Among those supporting the event was Debbie Adlam, the mother of PC Andrew Harper, who was killed while responding to a burglary in Berkshire in 2019.

She said: "Andrew was basically one of life's fun people to be around, he was always very level-headed, he could sort out situations in a way that I never could and he just had a sense of mischief about him and he just looked after everybody."

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