Officers go to New York to support JACK

8:00am Saturday 10th May 2008

A major police task force jetted 3,000 miles in support of Barnet cancer sufferer Jack Brown and others like him last week.

Forty-three officers from the Metropolitan Police, British Transport Police and Essex Police flew to New York last Thursday to complete a sponsored 36-mile run around Central Park for the Joining Against Cancer in Kids, or JACK, campaign.

Six-year-old Jack, from Bedford Avenue, was diagnosed three years ago with neuroblastoma, a rare and aggressive form of childhood cancer.

In a bid to save their son, Barnet detective sergeants Yvonne and Richard Brown turned to the revolutionary antibody treatment available to them only from the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Centre in New York, at a cost of more than $1 million.

For the past three years, the Met has supported their battle by raising much-needed funds. Last year, 17 officers raised £70,000 by cycling 220 miles from New York to Rhode Island.

This year the Met aimed to raise funds to hire a scientist in the UK to advance the search for a cure for neuroblastoma and prevent children having to travel abroad.

Metropolitan Police commissioner Sir Ian Blair said: "I am immensely proud of all the officers and staff who have come together to support their colleagues in fundraising for Jack and raising awareness of this rare form of cancer."