There is something very exciting knowing you’ve got a guarenteed 8 hours riding time on your motorbike. I was off to Kent to do a presentation with Mandy Stephens (one of our Trustees) and Bob Cannell (a MHMB volunteer) to the country’s best and most skilled police motorcycle bike instructors. These guys are some of the best and most highly skill instructors in the world and we had an hour in front of them presenting the charity. This was going to be special.
I travelled down the day before and experienced some of the wonderful locations in Kent (Leeds Castle etc.) the weather was wonderful and roads great for the bike. I was looked after by Mandy and Tim and had a great evening with them, thanks for the hospitality and awesome food!!
The following day the weather wasn’t so nice but we arrived earlier and was very lucky to sit in a presentation from BMW exploring the new bikes coming the police’s way – needless to say I can’t talk about this on here but things are getting very interesting with lots of new and very exciting developments.
We did our presentation and it was really well recieved by the instructors and probably 95% of them hadn’t come across us before so being to create an awareness which can then be passed onto their respective forces was invaluable. Over lunch we talked to a number of these officers and started to explore some follow on opportunities.
Partnerships like these are vital in building a positive and more joined up biker community. The police have an incredibly challenging job to do, I cannot ever imagine talking about how my bike is behaving at 120+ mph and they do this whilst frequently chasing people who want to harm them. I have the upmost repsect listening to some of what they do and the complexities of their jobs.
Thank you to Laura and PC Ian Clark for making this opportunity happen and we hope to do more together in the future. A fascinating insight to the crazy world of police biking.
The final part of the day was spent on the skid pan watching these very skilled operators handle a small Honda CRF when the front end went out of control! It was not very nice to watch never mind be on it!
The journey back home I got the inenvitable soaking all the way to Leicestershire and then the sun came out, but what a great couple of days, representing the charity with some awesome people.
It was a brilliant day. As a Mental Health Charity we must not forget that Police Officers may need support dealing with nasty or dangerous incidents, having to give a family member the worst news and investigate the cause. I have been told that individuals are reluctant to go to occupational health because of the stigma. Officers will also need to support members of the public in crisis.
Underneath the uniform is a person who is just as vulnerable to poor mental health, take the time to talk to them.