We have recently welcomed a new trustee on to the board and Rachel has shared her background and reasons for becoming a trustee of the Fund.
“We ask a lot of our policing colleagues, so it’s good to be able to make a difference,” the newest Trustee of The Gurney Fund, Rachel Nolan, has said.
Rachel is an Assistant Chief Constable in Essex Police and she is also a Trustee of her force’s Benevolent Fund.
She said: “Through my work with the Benevolent Fund, I realised that perhaps we weren’t as engaged with The Gurney Fund as we could have been. So we’ve raised awareness of The Gurney Fund in our force – we had a very low number of referrals and now we’re almost in double figures, over a relatively short period of time.
“When the opportunity came up to be a Trustee for The Gurney Fund I grabbed it, as I really want to make sure that police colleagues who need help are getting it, that they’re able to access the support that continually makes a difference.”
Rachel has just attended her first Gurney Fund meeting, and she said: “It’s just brilliant to see all the work that’s going on, and especially how carefully all the Trustees consider the individual circumstances of the families.
“It offers the children all sorts of opportunities: enabling them to go on school trips that they wouldn’t otherwise be able to pay for, study equipment, private counselling.
“We ask a lot of our policing colleagues and it’s hugely sad when we lose officers, so just being able to make that difference to those who are left behind is really rewarding.
“It’s also great to get involved with other forces in talking about this. It opens doors to talking about the other ways in which we can look after the wellbeing of officers and their families.”
Rachel has spent her whole career as an Essex Police officer but has also been seconded to the National Police Coordination Centre, which co-ordinates the deployment of officers and staff from across UK policing to support forces during large-scale events. “This meant that I was able to really appreciate what police forces can do when they work together,” she said.
Rachel continued: “My career has broadly been in uniform, but one of the highlights was getting to spend time in South Africa, learning about policing in that area but particularly about diversity. It inspired me to try to help make our police force as representative as we possibly can.
“I’m also the force lead for tackling violence against women and girls. Diversity and equality isn’t something that stands alone, it’s genuinely part of what we do.
“I love being a police officer, I feel really lucky to do this job. And getting involved in The Gurney Fund is another way that I can help other police officers and their families.”