Sheffield police officers clock up the miles on charity challenge

Not only did three Sheffield police officers complete their challenge of visiting 92 football grounds is as many hours, once they woke up from their much-needed sleep, they found out they had raised more than £10,000 for Sheffield Children’s Hospital.

Friends Det Insp Jamie Henderson, Sgt Scott Sarson and PC James Thorpe began their journey at 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 arriving back at Sheffield United’s Bramall Lane with just two minutes to spare at 3.58pm on Tuesday, July 16

And they even managed to squeeze in an extra two grounds on their 2,460-mile trip as they also paid a visit to Salford City and Leyton Orient, who were promoted to the Football League last season.

Jamie said: “We had a barrel of laughs but it was very hard works. I can’t understate how hard it was – it was really gruelling.

“At times we just wanted to park up and have a nap but we were on a really tight schedule.”

Scott, a Sheffield Wednesday fan; James, a Blade and Tottenham Hotspur fan Jamie, split the driving on the trip and ate and slept in a minibus owned by the South Yorkshire Police Sports and Social Club.Jamie said the group had decided to raise money for the Children’s Hospital Charity, where Scott’s daughter Lydia was treated.

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 £2.75 million.

We just said: ‘We are all cops in Sheffield and we all live and work here so should support it’.”

The group was greeted by dozens of family, friends and colleagues as they pulled into Bramall Lane with just two minutes to spare on Tuesday.

Jamie said: “It was amazing pulling in. We didn’t know as many people were going to be there – it was brilliant.

“When we got to Rotherham United’s New York Stadium there was quite a few relatives and friends there because we all used to be cops in Rotherham and then we hit Sheffield traffic coming through at 3.30pm and it was a case of: ‘Are we going to make this?’ but we did and it was brilliant.”

The trio will be auctioning off a number of items in order to top up the total raised.

For more information or to donate search @ninetytwo_in_92 on Twitter or visit www.justgiving.com/fundraising/ninetytwo-in-92.