A TEAM of police officers from Kendal and Windermere is putting foot to pedal for an epic 600-mile cycle ride.

The nine officers, plus a Windermere businessman, are set to ride from Blackpool Tower to the Eiffel Tower in June to raise cash for charities.

Already well on their way to a £10,000 target, the bobbies and businessman have raised about £7,500 which will go towards the North West Air Ambulance the Royal Lancaster Infirmary Neonatal unit (Special Care Baby Unit).

Inspector Paul Latham, from Kendal Police Station, said: “We come across the North West Air Ambulance quite a lot with work and we also just wanted to do something for children as we’ve all had our kids in and out of hospital.”

The group, made up of six serving officers, and three retired officers – Paul Mellard, Mark Jacobs, Christine Nelson, Bill Nolan, Jonathan Sizer, Paul Latham,  John Orr, Dave Banks, Ian Carruthers, Paul Liddell – and Lakelovers’ managing director Paul Liddell, made an appearance at Asda, Kendal, on static bikes on Sunday to help raise cash.

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They got together about a year ago and started cycling as a social activity, but now each member has an individual target of 1,000 miles to complete before the real thing.


Insp Latham said officer John Orr was retiring and instead of having a leaving do he wanted to do something a bit more special and suggested the raising money by completing the tower to tower route.


He continued: “I’m looking forward to getting to the end and feeling like we’ve achieved something by helping local people.”


Travelling about 100 miles a day, they will make three stopovers in the UK and three in France before reaching Paris.

The bikers will also don their special sponsored kits for the adventure from June 23 to June 28.
 

Their progress can be followed on Facebook by searching South Lakes Police Tower to Tower 2014.
Visit justgiving.com/teams/SLPT2T2014