Cleckheaton Fire Station’s Blue Watch decided to do all they could to support one of their colleagues who was suffering from terminal cancer.

Mat Wood was diagnosed with oesophageal cancer at the age of just 42 and he wanted his watch to raise money for Yorkshire Cancer Research and The Fire Fighters Charity as both charities were helping him.

The result was Dutch Courage – a cycle ride of 500 miles in 48 hours from Cleckheaton to Amsterdam via France and Belgium before running the Amsterdam Marathon. But the entire community became involved in the fundraising with 2,000 people attending one event and in the end they raised almost £17,000. Mat sadly died last month.

Fire fighters Tony Hill, John Whiteley, Marc Wright and Anton Frazer said that all this escalated from nothing.

They even went to a local community centre for older people where one of them had their head shaved to raise some money. Mat managed to cycle 30 miles despite being ill. They were absolutely honours to pick up the award in memory of Mat.

* The runners-up were Police Community Support Officers Jon Arey, Morgan Cockroft, Paul Simpkins and Chris McNamara along with the Tour de France Planning Team and the category was sponsored by LV=