Curry miles!

PC Phil Buckley

A well-known former beat bobby will get on his bike in Bangladesh to raise money for charity.

But first of all, Phil Buckley, who now works as an enforcement officer for Oldham Council, will be fundraising around 40 Bangladeshi takeaways and restaurants around Oldham.

Phil was well known as the community bobby for the Westwood and Coldhurst area, where most of Oldham’s Bangladeshi community live, for the final 13 years of his service with Greater Manchester Police.

He also grew up in the area for part of his youth when he lived in Stirling Street, and went to the scout group at Westwood Moravian Church, where he was married 31 years ago. So he is starting and finishing his bike ride on Sunday at the Westwood East restaurant on Chadderton Way.

Phil said: “I will be travelling to Lees, Scouthead and Uppermill, then down to Failsworth, Hollinwood and Chadderton, then to Shaw and Royton, starting at 4pm, and finishing around midnight.”

Phil, who studied Bangladeshi at University to help with his role as a community policeman, is known to many of the takeaway and restaurant owners.

His Oldham cycle ride with be split 50/50 for the charity, Andrea’s Gift, and his travelling expenses to Bangladesh. There he will cycle another 250 miles to raise funds for the charity which is based in Leeds and helps people who have suffered brain tumours.

He has lost two stone during his 10 months of training for the trip to Bangladesh and was due to travel with 15 friends and colleagues.

But a month ago there was a massacre of Army officers by mutinous border guards in the capital Dhaka, and now only three people are travelling.

But it has not put Phil off: “I have been there six times before.”