Wishing our members a very Merry Christmas

A Christmas message from Benevolent Fund Chairman.

WMP Benevolent Fund Chairman, John Williams

With only a few ‘sleeps’ ’til Christmas Day I’m sure many of you are busy making the final preparations for the holiday season.

Being busy has been a strong theme this year for the Benevolent Fund and I’d like to share with you some of this years highlights as well as a quick look ahead to the New Year and the things members can expect from the Fund in 2017.

At the beginning of the year we were proud to support the West Midlands Police Diamond Awards. We sponsored the Police Staff of the Year Award, that went to Jenny Birch. One of our biggest challenges is making police staff aware that they too can join the Fund and take advantage of our benefits and services.

Each year we offer financial support to members who really need our help. One long serving member and mother of two, Natalie Hughes was on a desperate fund raising mission to raise enough money to pay for her 3-year-old daughter, Millie Bea, to have a vital operation to enable her walk.

£40,000 needed to make Millie Bea’s walking wish come true

We donated £3,000 to Millie Bea’s Walking Wish and I’m really pleased to say that with the massive support from fellow police colleagues Natalie has reached her fund raising target. Hopefully Millie will be offered her life changing operation in the New Year. We will of course keep you updated on Millie Bea’s progress.

From walking wishes to career ambitions, I had the pleasure of meeting lots of student officers this year at their attestation events. I’d like to personally thank Natalie Hobster and the training officers at Learning and Development for inviting Nicki Biddlestone along to present to all Cohort 5 and 6 officers. It was really great to see over 75 per cent of student officers signed up to the Fund.

Earlier this month we launched our Christmas hamper competition for all serving officers and police staff. This is becoming a bit of a tradition with the Fund and a great way to tell police colleagues about our membership benefits.

We received over 600 entries this year and the luxury hampers were won by Clare Daker and Jane Speers. We think the hamper competition is a lovely way to tell people about the Fund. It also gives us the opportunity to update our members data base with correct email addresses.

If you believe we have your old home or e-mail please get in touch with the office or update your personal details online via our website http://www.wmpben.co.uk/members-area/update-details/

With all the new benefits we are offering our members we would hate for you to miss out because we cannot tell you about them.

That moves me nicely onto the exciting news about our new benefits for 2017. The Fund recently became the proud owners of a wonderful three-bedroom townhouse just a moments walk from the sandy beach, town and harbour of the popular seaside resort of Weymouth on the south coast of Dorset.

Members will be able to rent the holiday home for a week at a discounted rate from April 2017. Details about this new service will be sent to you in the post in January as part of our newsletter.

As well as a newly decorated and furnished holiday home members will also be able to benefit from the million pound refurbished convalescence facility in the beautiful Ribble Valley Lancashire. Next April work on revamping St Michael’s Lodge is due for completion and will offer a new range of facilities accessible to our members who need time away to recover from injury or illness.

Improved facilities include a fully equipped gym, swimming pool, hydrotherapy pool, work-out area for classes, a sauna and a hot tub, counselling rooms and lounge area and will provide a centre for both physical and mental wellbeing.

You can get a sneak peak on the progress of the renovations here https://youtu.be/mYkx7EMw2iQ

Finally I would like to share with you some of the kind donations we have received over the year. Obviously most of our funds are generated through member subscriptions however each year we do receive donations from the public who want to say thanks to serving officers and staff who work for West Midlands Police.

A lovely example of this was a kind donation from a couple in their 70’s who had arranged to meet friends travelling down from Wales at a hotel in Birmingham. Although from Sutton Coldfield, the couple were unfamiliar with the city after its recent development. They were quickly given assistance by Police Community Support Officer, Zoe Bishop.

So grateful for her help and kindness the couple wrote to West Midlands Police thanking her and gave a donation to the WMP Benevolent Fund.

I would like to say a personal thank you to everyone who has donated to our Fund this year. More funds mean we can help more of our police family through difficult times.

This year we have awarded £30,000 in charitable grants, £11,500 in interest free loans, almost £7,000 supporting officers off work through injury or sickness and just under £20,000 to our widows and orphans.

I always get great satisfaction knowing that we can offer support to members who really do need help and I hope we can continue to raise funds through donations to support even more colleagues.

It really has been a busy year and I know that 2017 will be just as fulfilling and this year has been.

I’d like to wish all our members a very happy Christmas and a prosperous New Year.

John Williams, Fund Chairman