Police officers from 17 of the UK’s 43 forces have cycled almost 250 miles to benefit the Police Treatment Centre in Auchterarder.
Twenty-two officers from across Scotland, Northern Ireland, north Wales and the north of England set off from the Perthshire site at 4am on Saturday.
They aimed to reach the counterpart treatment centre in Harrogate, North Yorkshire, in under 24 hours.
The officers, who came from some of the 23 forces served by both sites, were challenged to raise at least £1 for every officer in their own force the process.
The group arrived in Harrogate 16 hours after setting off and raised £26,000, with online donations still coming in. The money will be split between both centres.
The Police Treatment Centres (PTC) provides residential based intensive physiotherapy treatment and psychological support to serving police officers, whether they have been injured on or off duty. This support allows them to get back to full health and full duties as quickly as possible.
The centres make a difference to the lives of around four thousand officers each year from 23 forces in England, North Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland, as well as British Transport Police, Civil Nuclear Constabulary and Ministry of Defence Police.
The majority of funding is from police officers themselves who make donations to be eligible for free treatment. However, with the reduction in Police Officer numbers nationally, there has been a loss in income for the charity.
Brian Marsland and Andy Whitlie are representing Police Scotland at the event.
Brian said: “ The PTCs are for Police, by Police. Despite the massive amount of funding already provided by police officer contributions to be eligible for treatment, the PTC still rely heavily on donations.
“This is required for us to be able to provide the excellent services that allow serving and retired officers to enjoy a better quality of life following injury or illness.
“This isn’t about myself and Andy but about raising awareness of the PTC’s Psycholgical Wellbeing Programme and raising some money along the way.
“Hopefully, we can collect as many donations as we can to assist in building and sustaining the Psychological Wellbeing Programme.
“In an ideal world we’d like to say that we should never need this kind of wellbeing support, but the simple reality is that we do.”
