A police officer who featured on 999: What’s Your Emergency? has completed a nine-day, 146-mile trek to raise money for sufferers of post-traumatic stress disorder [PTSD] in the emergency services.

Wiltshire Police’s PC Joe Tompkinson, 31, has raised over £3,000 for the mental health charity Mind’s Blue Light Programme after taking on the walk from Plymouth in Devon to Land’s End in Cornwall.

Asked how the walk went, Joe said: “Painful! It was mammoth. I’d prepared for it by doing some distance walking, and I was aware what the terrain was like, but I wasn’t aware how relentless it would be.

“It was all fine apart from day two, when I had unbearable blisters, swelling in my feet, and all my stuff got wet, so I was just living out of a damp bag.

“But there was some great weather which was a delight to walk in.”

Part of the reason Joe, who has experience of PTSD himself, decided on the walk was to give himself some much-needed time away.

He said: “For me, on a personal note, the headspace it gave me was very worthwhile.

“Every night I was at the sea, able to just hear the waves.”

But the trek was given a focus by the fundraising taking place on the way, Joe said: “I had the app on my phone, and I could hear the donations coming in on my earphone, so that was awesome.

“I was so glad I was doing it for charity, because I would still be out there. Land’s End – you could see it from some way off, but it didn’t seem to get any closer, irrespective of how fast or hard you walked towards it.”

His efforts continue to see funds flooding in, he said: “We’re at about £3,300 out of our £5,000 target. The control room at work are having a couple of dress-down days for it, and we’ve been waiting for paydays.

“The only reason we put that £5,000 target on there was that that was what Mind wanted to give it all to the Blue Light programme. To be honest, we were only thinking of £1,000 to start with, so it’s been brilliant.”

To donate, visit https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/trek4ptsd.