The Police Treatment Centres, a Harrogate based charity, had an impromptu visit from the Olympic Torch and Lantern on Tuesday 19th June. The Olympic Torch is due to go within one mile of everyone in the UK over a period of 70 days and on Tuesday 19th June (Day 32) it came a lot closer than that to staff and patients at St Andrew’s PTC as well as the residents of Harrogate and surrounding areas.
There are 30 Met officers supporting the Torch who are split into teams of 3; they have 1 day running with the torch, 1 day off, 1 day on a bicycle and one day in a support vehicle.
Each officer carries a spare torch in case needed – hence a torch visited the PTC, but not lit as there is only 1 torch allowed to be lit. The lantern is a Davy lamp and must never go out – so for safety the officers locked it in their car whilst they went for a quick swim!
Helen Richardson, PR and Fundraising Assistant at St Andrew’s said:
Thanks go to Caroline, David and Mick for taking time out to visit St Andrews – there was a real buzz with patients and staff enjoying the moment. The officers commentated ‘Supporting the torch has been a fantastic experience, everyone is so supportive and it is great to be cheered by the public rather than jeered.
Patients and staff at St Andrews really appreciated the visit and our thanks go to the Met Police and all the organisers for enabling the torch to not only visit St Andrews but to cover 8000 miles across the UK.
