Cllr Nali Patel, Deputy Mayor of Sutton, with team captains PC Mark Towler, tournament organiser and captain of the Safer Neighbourhoods Team (left); PC Adam Pollard, captain of the winning B Relief response team (right); and Claire Thorpe, community fundraiser for the Alzheimer’s Society.
Off-duty police officers took part in a nail-biting final to a charity soccer tournament during the hottest day of the year to raise money to help people with dementia.
The finalists from Sutton’s 999 B Relief response team and community officers from Sutton South and Worcester Park Safer Neighbourhoods Teams were playing at Goals, London Road, North Cheam, on Wednesday, 24 August.
Because of the 30+ degree heat, the players were rotated frequently with substitutes to allow them to come off and douse themselves in water whilst refreshed players came on to take their place.
The result at the end of the match was 6 v 4 to the response team and £200 raised for charity from a tournament that involved 16 different police teams in Sutton since February.
Councillor Nali Patel, Deputy Mayor of Sutton , who presented the trophy to the winning team, said:
“It was a very courageous act to play in such a heat for such a wonderful cause.”
Claire Thorpe, community fundraiser for the Alzheimer’s Society, said:
“I am really grateful to the police officers in Sutton for their commitment to raising money. I think what they have done is amazing.”
She said the £200 would go towards local services like the dementia café in Cheam Library and initiatives like ‘singing for the brain’ as well as towards research and their national helpline, which took 40,000 calls last year.
The Mayor of Sutton’s charities for 2016 are the Alzheimer’s Society and Sutton Shopmobility.