Hertfordshire officers hope to raise thousands for charity

Two Hertfordshire police officers, who will be taking on the Jungle Marathon in the Amazon to raise money for Great Ormond Street Hospital (GOSH), are hitting the treadmills at St Pancras International Rail station on September 28, 2011, as part of their efforts to reach their fundraising target of £50,000. PC Darren Clawson and PC Arron Worbey, who are based at Stevenage police station, are being supported by customer intelligence organisation Sky IQ.

In October they will run what is considered to be one of the toughest foot races in the world called the Jungle Marathon. They will run 225km through the Amazon Jungle in temperatures over 110 Fahrenheit across six days. One section of the race equates to two marathons. They will have to contend with the local wildlife, such as jaguars, poisonous spiders and snakes and giant ticks and the humidity will hit the mid 90s. Participants also have to carry everything they need to survive during the race apart from water although they will be supported by Claire Gubby who is a senior nurse at GOSH and is attending as the team medic.

Darren, whose son Hadley receives treatment at GOSH, said: "The hospital does some fantastic work and we are proud to be involved in fundraising for such an amazing charity. We are looking to raise the money to help fund a specialist new ward and we are organising a number of fundraising events to help reach our total. At St Pancras we will be covering 90kms on treadmills in the station."

The event at St Pancras will take place between 11.30am and 7.30pm on the station concourse near the shops and donations will be collected on the day. Darren and Arron will be joined by nine volunteers, who will run 10kms each alongside them.

Arron said: "We have been training for almost a year and we are getting a lot of support not only from our friends and family but from GOSH and Sky IQ. For this event we are extremely grateful to British Transport Police for letting us use the station and to Life Fitness who have provided the treadmills."

Katie Simmons, Senior Fundraising Manager at Great Ormond Street Hospital Children's Charity said: "We'd like to say a huge thank you to Darren and Arron for undertaking such an incredible challenge for the hospital. The money they raise will help to build our new neurosciences wing, so that we can treat more children every year in world class facilities."

Whilst running the Jungle Marathon, the officers will be filming every step they take thanks to sponsorship by Kodak who have provided them with specialist equipment.

They will also be fundraising locally at Nuffield Health wellbeing centre in Letchworth on September 24.

If you are unable to make any of the events but wish to sponsor Darren and Arron please go to:
www.justgiving.com/teams/skyiq/