Care of Police Survivors
Light the Lakes 2022
The Light The Lakes event sees teams of police officers, staff, retired officers and police friends light up the famous Wainwright fells of Cumbria in memory of colleagues killed.
Story
Since 2012, Light the Lakes has now become an established event in the climbers diary where Police Officers, colleagues and friends climb Wainwright peaks in the Lake District to remember serving and former Police officers who have died.
The Vision has always been to cover all 214 Wainwright fells to light a flare in honour of our fallen colleagues.
The 2012 event was the foundation Ian Davis laid for Light the Lakes with the ambition of completing all 214 Wainwright Peaks.
In May 2015, Ian announced he was stepping down from organising the main event and Vinny Wagjiani continued organising the event with a strong team, keeping the legacy going with his sight on getting all 214 Peaks covered.
The 2021 event was exceptionally successful in that we covered 210 peaks with more than 2000 participants.
Whilst the team may have changed over the years, the passion and determination to remember those we have lost in the Police service has not.
Lighting those peaks is a time of reflection for our Police family. Many of us have lost friends and colleagues and Light the Lakes gives us a chance to continue to remember them by lighting that blue flare.
The Police family are of course also part of their local communities and Light the Lakes is therefore an event for everyone. In 2021 we saw parents, children and our furry friends camping up on the fells, whilst friends and family members climbed alongside their police colleagues.
Light the Lakes Organiser Vinny Wagijani, a Detective Sergeant with Surrey Police, called the event a huge success.
We covered two more peaks than in 2019 and have had more than 2,000 people take part I'm completely overwhelmed with the support and generosity shown by people.
COPS Survivor Christine Grew, together with son Benjamin and dog Rox, climbed a peak on their own.
Neither of us are serious walkers, we've never been at the top of a peak in the dark so it was a bit of a challenge
Seeing the flares in the dark across the peaks was an incredibly special and moving experience.
Light the Lakes continues to support and raise money to support COPS (Care of Police Survivors) who relentlessly work to provide peer support and access to counselling services to help surviving family members rebuild their shattered lives. They have helped hundreds of police families devastated by the loss of a loved one who died on duty. To date, the event has raised more than a staggering £100,000 which helps toward providing practical and emotional support for the surviving families of police officers such as peer support events and access to counselling.
