Met Police Officer joins board of Charity Trustees
Wednesday, 03 February, 2016
A charity set up to help injured emergency services personnel has appointed a MET Police Officer to its Board of Trustees.
PC David Rathband’s Blue Lamp Foundation has welcomed PC Emma Shackell as a new Charity Trustee after her long-standing association with the Foundation.
Emma, who has been a MET Police Officer for almost 20 years, joined the Foundation as a voluntary Charity Champion in 2012, spreading the work of the charity across her Force; fundraising and raising awareness of how it could help injured colleagues. She now becomes the Foundation’s seventh Trustee joining a serving Fire Fighter, Paramedic and former Police Officer on the Board.
Emma has played a very proactive role during her time as a Charity Champion, helping organise fundraising events including a Family Fun Day and Blindfolded football Match. She’s been able to get the work of the charity in front of celebrities including Phillip Schofield who then became the Charity’s Twitter Patron.
Peter Sweeney, Chairman of PC David Rathband’s Blue Lamp Foundation, said: “We’re delighted to welcome Emma as a new Foundation Trustee. She’s passionate about the work of the Foundation and she’s been a great addition to us in her role as a Charity Champion over the last four years. We’re looking forward working with her going forward ensure we’re serving the Police community as best we can.”
Emma Shackell, said: “I joined The Blue Lamp Foundation after I read about David Rathband’s death in the news as I wanted to be a part of a charity that would be there to financially support my emergency services Colleagues if they were injured in the line of duty as David was. With cuts to pay and conditions, certainly in the police force, officers strip back their out goings to basics and now, some don't even pay into the insurances that are offered to them.
“Like David, when you leave the station, you never know what you will have to deal with, what calls will come out or the dangers you will face, but you do your best to serve the community and the job that you joined to do. The dangers are rarely at the front of your mind, you just do the job.
“I really enjoy the work that I do for the Foundation and I am looking forward to my role as a Trustee. It was an absolute honour to be asked and I hope that I will make David and his family proud.”
