Northamptonshire father to spend 24 hours in police custody in aid of two hospitals close to his heart

A Northamptonshire father will be spending 24 hours in a police cell to raise money for two hospitals who have helped his family immeasurably.

Simon Nixon works at Kettering Police Station and has arranged to spend a day in custody to support Northampton General Hospital and Stoke Mandeville Hospital.

The 35-year-old dad from Brixworth's daughter spent a fortnight in intensive care at NGH after she was born in August 2019.

While his brother was supported by the Aylesbury hospital after he was paralysed from the waist down by falling through a barn roof just two months later.

"It was a pretty messy couple of months," Simon admitted.

Simon's daughter Sienna was born through an emergency C-section after mum Michaela had reduced movements which turned to be because the baby could not breathe properly.

Luckily she was okay but still had to spent two weeks in the Gosset ward at NGH, the neonatal intensive care unit for newborn babies.

Then in October 2019, Simon's brother Michael was clearing guttering on a barn roof on his farm when he fell 28 feet onto concrete and was taken to University Hospital Coventry and Warwickshire.

Michael, 33, from Wootton Fields, Northampton, was told he had suffered a serious spinal injury and he would never walk again.

After a few months, he was transferred to Stoke Mandeville Hospital, which specialises in spinal injuries, where he was helped to have as much mobility as possible.

Simon wanted to do something to thank the two hospitals at the beginning of last year but then the coronavirus pandemic stopped everything.

"I was originally planning to do something like a run or donate blood but we went into lockdown and I had worked in a pub for 16 years but I got made redundant," he said.

"Through lockdown I found a new job working in police custody so I thought it would be a bit of a challenge mentally to be put in a room for 24 hours.

"So I thought I would give that a go, I spoke to my sergeant and chief inspector who got behind the idea and gave me permission."

On August 24, Simon will be arrested at his home and taken to Kettering Police Station, booked in as standard and shut in a cell with just a bed and a toilet.

Simon said: "Once that door closes that's it, you're by yourself. We've got some books but there's not much to choose from to be honest so I'm planning on just sleeping.

"My colleagues have joked about not making it easy, like if we think they are drunk or on drugs we have to walk them up every half an hour which can be frustrating.

"You also don't have control of the light, you have to ask for it to be switched on and off so things like that they have suggested."

To donate, visit justgiving.com/fundraising/simon-nixon8.