Following the sad passing of Marion who was a cleaner for many years at Elgin Police Office, the family kindly chose the SPBF to be one of the benefactors from the collection at her funeral. Her family told us that Marion loved working at the Elgin Office and is pictured here in the middle, holding her retirement card from the officers and staff.
Following her passing, Marion’s daughter was contacted by a former workmate who let her know that Marion was loved by everyone at the office and would be greatly missed. She said, “Marion wasn’t just our cleaner she was a surrogate granny and marvellous baker too”.
We all at SPBF, would like to pass on our condolences to Marion’s family and thank them for their kind donation. It is clear that Marion was very much seen as part of the Police family in Elgin and will be missed by all of her former colleagues.
We would just like to thank our intrepid explorer retired officer Tony Catlan for his support raising the fantastic sum of £890.
Tony took on the Cape Wrath trail (Fort William to Cape Wrath) to raise funds for the Scottish Police Benevolent Fund. In the end he walked 248 miles, climbed a total of 43,000 feet (one and a half times the height of Everest), all while carrying 20 kilos of equipment on his back.
The trail is not for the faint hearted or inexperienced. Tony said the weather conditions were kind to him, but he still regularly woke up with ice on his tent. He snapped a walking pole, got cracked fingers from the cold and nearly stumbled onto a snake. There is limited phone signal on the route so if anything goes wrong all you can do is hope it’s not too many days before you bump into the next person on the trail.
The entire route is challenging, but Tony said the hardest bit of the trail was behind the Torridon mountains. At one point it took him 6 hours to cover 6km due to a massive bolder field and boggy terrain. He said, the views from Beinn Eighe were worth it though.
In all it took 17 days to complete the challenge, although not content with that he spent a couple of days camping and cold water dipping in the North Atlantic before finely returning home.
Tony used his time wisely on his mammoth trek and managed to learn some Robbie Burns, ‘A Man’s a Man for a’ That.’
Well, when we caught up with this Man, he was thankfully taking a well-deserved rest and enjoying home comforts and a cuppa.
Thanks again Tony, we are incredibly grateful for your efforts and the fact you chose to support the SPBF, giving us vital additional funds so we can support serving and retired officers/ staff and their dependents in time of need.
Anthony has autism and is very passionate about the Police. He began visiting Glenrothes Police station to see the Police cars and meet the local Bobbies and is now known as ‘Special Constable Green’.
Anthony and his dad who has no connection to the Police have planned a trip to visit 50 Police stations around Scotland, in July 2024, in a bid to raise money for the Scottish Police Benevolent Fund.
Anthony will be taking photographs along the way and making a 2025 calendar with pictures from his encounters of all the stations and departments.
Please, if you can, donate on the below just giving page and if everyone managed to donate a single £1 Anthony will be overwhelmed.
Here is a direct link to Anthony’s Just Giving Page here. Please feel free to share this post far and wide with friends and family on Facebook, Twitter and any other Social Media you can think off and lets make this as special for Anthony as we can.
Have a fabulous time Anthony, we will be watching with great interest as you go on your grand adventure.
Well not quite! But Tony certainly will have a few animals, beasties and other extreme challenges to contend with on this journey.
SPBF is extremely grateful to ex Police Officer Tony Catlin, who is embarking on what is classed as the U.K.’s most difficult hike and recognised as one of the finest, challenging, and scenic long distance hikes in the world. Known as the Cape Wrath Trail, it’s a gruelling 230 mile minimum unmarked hike, all in aid of raising funds for the Scottish Police Benevolent Fund.
Tony who is 65 years young, will be undertaking this hike solo. Carrying all his own kit (18-20kgs pack) he will have to contend with snakes, difficult terrain and of course the Scottish weather. If that isn’t enough, he will be adding a few freezing cold swims in lochs as well as a few summit climbs and river crossings, just to spice things up a bit!!
Tony starts his marathon hike on 18 April and has created a Just Giving donation page which you can access using this link.
He hopes to raise at least £1,000 for our vital charity work but of course he would love it to be more. Tony would be most grateful if you would be so kind to support his efforts and give a donation no matter how small or large.
Whilst on his travels, he hopes to gives us regular updates, photos & videos showing his endeavours and we look forward to seeing them. SPBF wishes Tony every success in undertaking this monumental effort towards raising support for our Police Officers, Support Staff and their families in time of need.
In preparation Tony has been undertaking a few practice hikes and trying to fine tune his equipment needs and kit bag weight. However, he seems to be having difficulty with a couple of stowaways who seem determined to play a part!
Below is a map showing the route Tony will roughly be taking and I think we can all agree, this is no easy feat!!
Our Secretary Stephen Clark, managed to catch up with our intrepid foot warrior Henry Hughes after his sterling effort on this years Kilt Walk raising funds for the Scottish Police Benevolent Fund. Thanks to his massive efforts, he raised a fantastic £450 for the charity, which will be put to great use supporting our officers and their families. A big thank you to Henry from all at SPBF.
If you would like to walk, run, cycle, knit, bake or do any activity in aid of raising funds for our charity, we would love to hear from you and give you our support. No matter how much or little you raise, it all counts towards supporting our members at time of need as Scotland’s ONLY dedicated Police charity for Police Officers, Support Staff and their families. So why not give it a go!!
With all the negative media stories around the world right now due to the Covid19 outbreak, it’s nice to know good things still happen and dreams do come true.
Thanks to the continued support from SPBF members and friends, one little girl was able to experience a holiday of a lifetime despite the many challenges she faces on a daily basis. Maisie, who is severely disabled physically and mentally, requires constant care on a 24/7 basis, and any type of excursion is a military operation for the family at the best of times.
So it was the pleasure of the SPBF to assist the family in sprinkling a little of that Disney Magic Dust and making her dream come true.
As a result of our direct intervention, Maisie’s parents where able to properly plan for this trip in the knowledge they had the backing and support of the charity. After obtaining a specialist flight cot to travel, adapted vehicle and a villa specially equipped to accommodate families with special needs, Maisie was finally on her way to never never land.
We loved receiving the pictures on their return of Maisie enjoying meeting Mickey and Minnie as well as spending some special one on one time with her favourite character, her dad in the pool.
It looks like Maisie and her family had a holiday to remember and we are so glad this was all still possible before the lock down took effect across the globe. It is only through members continued support, fundraisers and kind donations from members of the public that we can continue to support such deserving cases. So please continue to give generously when you can and let us continue to help make more dreams come true.
It costs less than the price of a cup of coffee a month to become a member of the Scottish Police Benevolent Fund, giving you peace of mind that in times of need or hardship, we have your back even long after you retire. If you’d like to join the SPBF, make a donation or raise funds for us please get in touch.
Thanks to our subscribing members and gratefully
received donations, we are delighted to announce that we were recently able to assist
another member of the Police family who came to us for assistance.
Jack, who is aged nine, is the son of a serving Police officer and suffers from Cerebral Palsy. It’s fair to say, Jack has had a bit of a time of it, having been born prematurely and spent the first four months of his life in hospital. Shortly after his discharge, the family then had to contend with Jack being diagnosed with Cerebral Palsy. Mainly affecting his lower limbs, his parents were informed by the medical team that they were looking at the real prospect of Jack being wheelchair bound for the rest of his life.
Thankfully Jack’s parents decided they weren’t going to give up so easily and would do everything they could to afford him as much of a normal childhood possible and provide him the best opportunity to be as mobile and active as possible. So they embarked on an intensive programme over the next few years towards achieving this.
Jack gets regular input from the community physiotherapist and needs twice daily physio sessions from his mum and dad just to keep his lower limbs from getting stiff. But this hard work has paid off with Jack now having enough strength to walk with the aid of splints and a walking frame and not being totally reliant on a wheelchair.
These daily sessions are essential to maintain his current condition, but also mean the family struggle with all the other normal things that a busy family would usually have to contend with.
To try and continue to improve Jack’s strength and
mobility it was apparent that he needed somewhere to allow him to focus on his
physio without simple distractions. Getting
Jack to a local gym to further strengthen his limbs was impracticable due to
his age, nor would they be set up to deal with Jack’s specific needs and that’s
where the SPBF stepped in!
Being made aware of the Fund’s willingness to assist
in supporting its members within the Police family, Jack’s parents made an
application to our charity and in just a few simple steps, we were able to
inform the family that we would be delighted to provide them with financial
support to make Jack’s life that little bit easier.
With our support, the family were quickly able to
decide upon a suitable design that met their specific needs and appoint local
contractors to construct Jack’s new Gym within the confines of the back garden
of the family home.
The guys get to work
It’s taking shape
Where’s that paint brush?
Just a last few finishing touches
Now fully constructed and equipped with all the necessary pieces of equipment to assist Jack in continuing his physical development. The ultimate aim and hope is for Jack to be able to walk completely unaided in the future.
Fully constructed and looking great!
All kitted out and ready to receive Jack
Jack puts in a shift in his new Gym
Jack knows this is no easy task and will require a lot of work and dedication on his part, but he is determined he will get there and so now tongue in cheek refers to his new Gym as his own personal ‘House of Pain!’
All systems are GO!
Jack’s parents have expressed their sincere gratitude to
the Scottish Police Benevolent Fund and its members for all the support and
assistance given. It’s great to see Jack
happy at work in his ‘House of Pain’ and we shall be watching with keen interest
on his progress towards those big steps.
The
SPBF previously produced a series of short videos spotlighting some of our work
over the years. In them, officers and their families tell us their stories and
what the Scottish Police Benevolent Fund has done for them. You can view these
videos by clicking on our blog via the home page. If you know somebody who
needs help then contact us.
It costs less than the price of a cup of coffee a month to become
a member of the Scottish Police Benevolent Fund, giving you peace of mind that
in times of need or hardship, we have your back even long after you retire. If
you’d like to join the SPBF, make a donation or raise funds for us please
get in touch.
