One car, 92 football grounds, 92 hours – Three Sheffield police officers hope to raise £25,000 with charity challenge

James Thorpe, Jamie Henderson and Scott Sarson will take on the challenge to raise money for the Children's Hospital Charity.

That is exactly the plan for one group of football-mad Sheffield police officers, though, and they also hope to raise £25,000 for the city’s Children’s Hospital in the process.

Friends Det Insp Jamie Henderson, Sgt Scott Sarson and PC James Thorpe will leave Barnsley’s Oakwell Stadium at 8am on Friday, July 12 before taking in another 90 Football League and Premier League grounds around the country and, hopefully, arriving back at Sheffield United’s Bramall Lane at around 4pm on Tuesday, July 16.

This is the staggering amount tourists spend in Sheffield every year

Jamie said: “We are three friends as well as three cops and we usually go away each summer and have a bit of a lads’ weekend.

“This year we thought we would do something UK-based and do something for charity. We came up with the idea of doing all of the football grounds because we’re all avid fans.”

Jamie said the group had decided to raise money for the Children’s Hospital Charity, where Scott’s daughter Lydia was treated.

Sheffield Children's Hospital. Picture: Dean Atkins

He added: “Scott’s daughter Lydia was born with a heart defect and she was in and out of the children’s hospital and had surgery in Leeds so we looked at what they were currently doing.

“We found they had got an appeal for the cancer and leukaemia ward and were trying to get £4.75 million. We just said: ‘We are all cops in Sheffield and we all live and work here so should support it’.”

Scott, a Sheffield Wednesday fan; James, a Blade and Tottenham Hotspur fan Jamie, have already drawn in around £1,300 in donations and have contacted every one of the 92 clubs they will be visiting.

Jamie said they would split the driving as they clock up more than 2,400 miles and will opt for two wheels rather than four around London and travel 65 miles on bikes.

They will also be eating and sleeping in the car as part of the journey.

Jamie added: “It’s going to be really tight for us to do it all within 92 hours but we’ve had lots of kind offers from the clubs.

“When we spoke to Newcastle we said we would be arriving there at around 4am and they said they’d open the ground up for us and let us go on the pitch.”

The group are also hoping to take photographs at each of the grounds and Jamie said they were looking for businesses to sponsor each of the photographs.

For more information on their trip or to donate visit www.justgiving.com/fundraising/ninetytwo-in-92.