RoadPeace, Road Safety Support and Irwin Mitchell, hosted a celebration event on September 8th for those who took part in the RoadPeace Andy Cox Challenge. This event was to celebrate the challenge’s achievements (£70k raised for our charity) and congratulate those who went the extra mile to support the national event.
The event sponsored by our legal panel member, Irwin Mitchell was held at their offices in Birmingham, where we gave out 8 awards to those who made an exceptional impact during the weeklong event.
Team Fundraising Award: Avon and Somerset Police RPU
They carried out an intense five-day fundraising itinerary in support of the RoadPeace Andy Cox Challenge 2022. Led by Damien Devanny, Continuous Improvement Officer, at Avon and Somerset Police, team cycled along many routes where fatal collisions occurred. Via social media, they called upon the public to get involved by sharing their stories, raising awareness around road danger and making a donation to RoadPeace. In total, Team Avon and Somerset raised £1,439.00 for RoadPeace.
Innovative Fundraising Award: West Mercia Police
They really made the RoadPeace Andy Cox Challenge their own from the word go. They had the idea to place three spin bikes at Police Headquarters, Shrewsbury Police Station and Hereford Police Station during the challenge week. The concept was a real team effort and the force really grasped the vision for the challenge from the outset – to make the event their own and work as a team to raise maximum awareness. With their efforts they raised over £2000 and the force, safer roads partnership, local authorities, fire service and Police and Crime Commissioner’s Office widely publicised their efforts on social media and in the local media.
Social Media Impact Award: Sgt Paul Cording, North Yorkshire Police
From the very first national challenge briefing, roads policing officer, Sgt Cording, made it his personal mission to raise maximum awareness about the event on Twitter and in the news media. Unaided, Paul created a total of 96 Tweets that mentioned the #AndyCoxChallenge in a matter of weeks – the highest number of tweets from any account (even RoadPeace, Road Safety Support and Andy Cox!), which achieved an incredible 1.4m impressions. He took our Schools Day concept forward and worked with a school in Harrogate to depict how many children were killed in road crashes in North Yorkshire, in 2020, also ensuring television coverage of the event. As well as raising considerable awareness around road danger, Sgt Cording also raised £1,530 for RoadPeace.
Victims’ Voice Award: PC Emilie Bunkall, Northamptonshire Police
Roads Policing officer PC Emilie Bunkall is an inspirational fundraiser, who sadly knows how it feels to be on both sides of a fatal collision. Professionally, she has attended numerous road collisions in her county, but her own Mum, Julie, died in a road crash in 2013. She arranged a week full of awareness and fund-raising activities throughout this year’s challenge week, covering at least nine miles each day to mark the nine years since her Mum’s crash. She and colleagues from Northamptonshire Police raised a total of £1,615 for RoadPeace.
Individual Fundraising Award: Sgt Brandon Brown, South Yorkshire Police
Sgt Brandon Brown cycled 700km in support of the challenge, covering 100km every day for seven days. He managed this despite the fact that he had four 12-hour shifts to do during the challenge. He got at 4.30am on each of these days to ensure that he completed his mileage! Brandon worked hard to raise awareness about the event among colleagues and was supported by the South Yorkshire Safer Roads Partnership in promoting the event publicly. Thanks to his efforts, he raised £1,730 for RoadPeace.
Community Engagement Award: RoadPeace West Midlands Local Group
The local group along with CFG Law organised a Walk and Talk event in support of the challenge. The event took place to allow those affected by road traffic collisions in the West Midlands area to have their voices heard. It brought together bereaved families, emergency services and other professionals to talk openly about their experiences. The group raised £115 for RoadPeace.
Marketing & PR Award: Rebecca Morris, Road Safety Support
Anyone who has been involved with the RoadPeace Andy Cox Challenge, they would have come into contact with Rebecca at some point. Without her amazing PR skills, we would not have been able to raise nearly as much nor get as much coverage. We are thankful for her dedication to road danger reduction and support of RoadPeace.
Finally we surprised Detective Chief Superintendent Andy Cox with an award for all that he has done for RoadPeace and road danger reduction within the UK. Unbeknownst to himself at the end of the awards we surprised him with the Road Crime Reduction Superhero Award.
It was a wonderful event and we are so thankful to all those who participated in the weeklong event. We wanted a chance to thank all those involved, our corporate sponsors and give extra thanks to all those who went the extra mile.
We look forward to seeing you all at next year’s event and keep an eye out for more information on what is to come!
Updated on: 13 September 2022