Officer’s freezing swim to raise funds for injured colleague

A READING police officer is to carry out a chilly sponsored swim in Cumbria to raise money for the family of injured colleague PC Gareth Browning.

PC Melanie Todd, (pictured) a road death investigator at Thames Valley Police, will swim two miles in Lake Windermere as part of the Great North Swim in June.

PC Todd wants to raise money for the family of her “good friend and colleague” PC Browning who remains in hospital after he was stuck by a stolen car he was attempting to stop in the Whitley area of Reading in November last year.

Luke Haywood, aged 28, of no fixed abode, was sentenced to nine years’ imprisonment earlier this month after pleading guilty to one count of causing grievous bodily harm with intent to resist/prevent arrest, aggravated taking without consent and going equipped for burglary.

PC Todd said she and her colleagues had been badly affected by the incident and that she felt frustrated at not being able to do more to help PC Browning, who she has worked with since first joining the job 9 years ago.

She describes him as “an incredibly kind, honest, honourable, funny and totally wonderful man and an excellent police officer”.

She said: “We worked together really closely for my first few years in the police and he was one of my most regular crew mates. He is incredibly popular and what happened to him was hideous. It really hits home and I just wanted to do something. It is frustrating to feel so useless, I just want to be able to do something to help, to make life even a fraction easier for Gareth and his family.”

PC Browning has a wife and two young sons.

PC Todd adds: “The response I have had so far has been amazing. I have already had lots of support and donations from people, in this force and others. I just want to raise as much as money possible for the family.”

As part of her training, PC Todd has been swimming between 1 and 2.5 miles five times a week in a pool – on top of her shifts – and has now started supplementing her training by swimming in the 14-degree Reading Lake.

PC Todd added: “I didn’t realise how much harder it would be to swim in a lake than in a pool. It is so much colder and that really affects you and you are not pushing off against the end of the pool, so that takes more effort.  Also your buoyancy is different because of the wet suit, which is a bit restrictive. The first lake swim I did was really tough, but it is getting easier with practice.”

If you would like to sponsor PC Todd she has set up a PayPal account so people can make payments directly into this account.

If you have a PayPal account click on the “Send money” tab and when asked for the email address to transfer money please use her police email address of [email protected].

If you do not have a PayPal account then please email her directly to arrange an alternative method of donating.