Police collect £8000 with a pedal to Paris

LOTHIANS police officers raised more than £8000 for a hospital in Malawi by cycling to Paris.

They handed over the cheque to the Malawian consul Colin Cameron at the Scottish Parliament yesterday.

They were met by MSPs Andy Kerr and Robin Harper, and many Malawians living in Edinburgh.

They received a warm welcome when they arrived in the French capital after the 220-mile journey and now plan to make the Auld Alliance Charity Cycle Ride an annual event.

They have persuaded dozens of French and Belgian police to take part next year and hope up to 200 cyclists could take to the roads.

Allan Prentice, the Lothian and Borders force's head of finance, came up with the idea to raise funds for Malawi Ekwendeni Hospital and Nyumbani Aids Orphans in Kenya.

Mr Prentice said: "When we arrived in Paris, we were treated like royalty. We were met by the director of the police and two motorcyclists. We were joined by 30 more officers. They even had a police band playing for us."

Twenty officers and staff from the force, as well as colleagues from Fife and Strathclyde, completed the 220-mile journey.

The cyclists made their journey from the Scottish Parliament to Paris via Belgium - using the Rosyth to Zeebrugge ferry - in four days in September.