By Alan Thompson From Leicester Mercury

Programme will enable scientists to broadcast live from ocean floor to classrooms across the islands

A retired Leicestershire detective living and working in the Caribbean can look back with satisfaction on a challenging year in which he raised $50,000 for an environmental project on the island he calls home.

Derek Haines retired as a Detective Superintendent from the county force before becoming a Detective Chief Superintendent with the Royal Cayman Islands Police, taking on the drugs gangs using the islands as staging posts for delivery to the lucrative US market.

The 69-year-old life-long athlete and Rotarian – he was famed while serving in the city for regularly bringing back prisoners from his lunchtime training runs – raised the money through his Volcanoes and Marathons Challenge.

Derek, who was awarded an MBE for services to community and sport on the Caribbean islands two years ago, climbed two volcanos in Guatemala and completed a high-altitude marathon in the Central American country.

He has also previously raised more than US $1 million for a hospice on Grand Cayman.

The volcano climbs, in June, with daughter Lizzy, 30, and friend Gaby Amado, from Guatemala, came two weeks before the latest eruption of neighbouring Volcano de Fuego, whose summit is less than a mile from the 13,045 ft Acatenango volcano they were climbing.

He took on the challenge to climb two volcanoes and run three marathons this year to raise $50,000 for the Central Caribbean Marine Institute’s (CCMI) Reefs Go Live initiative.

The programme will enable scientists to broadcast live from Little Cayman’s ocean floor to classrooms across the islands.

Derek said: “CCMI has bought the equipment to start the reef research that will direct the programme into schools.

“There will be that link between the students and the researchers on the ocean floor so the students can ask questions of the researchers and see what he or she is doing to sort it out,”

He added: “What we’re trying to do now is make sure they have enough money to keep it going. There is no point in buying it and it falls flat.”

Derek said was encouraged by support from the community and the Rotary Club of Grand Cayman, which manages his fundraising efforts.

Derek, who estimates he has already run around 2,000 miles this year for the charity challenge, added: “People know that money is safe [with Rotary]. The other thing is that they also know we don’t have any admin fees or expenses.

“Any expense for travelling, I pay for myself and there are no management fees. If someone gives us a dollar, $10 or $1,000,it all goes to the charity.”

IMAGES:

The former Leicestershire detective sits on a consignment of cocaine seized in the Cayman Islands in 2002 when he was chief of the drugs squad in the Cayman Islands (Image: Supplied picture)

Derek after completing the San Francisco Marathon in July (Image: Supplied picture)

The volcano climbs, in June, with daughter Lizzy, 30, and friend Gaby Amado, from Guatemala, came two weeks before the latest eruption of neighbouring Volcano de Fuego, whose summit is less than a mile from the 13,045 ft Acatenango volcano they were climbing. (Image: Supplied picture)

The volcano climbs, in June, with daughter Lizzy, 30, and friend Gaby Amado, from Guatemala, came two weeks before the latest eruption of neighbouring Volcano de Fuego, whose summit is less than a mile from the 13,045 ft Acatenango volcano they were climbing. (Image: Supplied picture)

For more on this story go to: http://www.leicestermercury.co.uk/news/leicester-news/retired-cop-dereks-marathons-volcanoes-958156