Police officer Bill Barker remembered 15 years on from Cumbrian floods

PC Bill Barker lost his life on November 20 2009 after a section of Northside Bridge in Workington gave way underneath him while he was guiding people away.

Following his death, thousands paid tribute to the roads police officer including then Prime Minister Gordon Brown who called PC Barker a 'very heroic, very brave man'.

His widow Hazel said: "I asked somebody who had lost her husband in the police prior to us losing Bill: 'Just tell me how to get over this' and she said: 'You will never get over it you will only ever find ways of getting round it' and fifteen years on these words ring true.

The Bill Barker memorial charity motorcycle ride from Egremont to the North East back in 2014 (Image: Supplied) "I look back and so many incredible things.. incredible memories, good and bad."

Hazel recalled while she was in supermarket car park a man approached the car to pay tribute to her husband.

She said: "He said to me you're Mrs Barker aren't you, PC Barker's wife, I said yes and he went on to tell me how much respect he had for Bill."

The man went on to tell Hazel how much her late husband had treated him with respect before handing her a handwritten note which said 'PC Bill Barker total respect' alongside a £10 note.

Fundraisers including a police football tournament and annual bikers day have raised thousands in memory of PC Barker for the Great North Air Ambulance Service.

The North, South, West and HQ teams with Hazel Barker and Chiel Constable Jeremy Graham before the kick off of the Bill Barker memorial football match Whitehaven back in 2016. (Image: Supplied)

Hazel said: "Bill was honoured and he was privileged to serve amongst the most amazing people in Cumbria constabulary. He was honoured to serve the people in the Cumbrian communities, he considered it a privilege.

"Bill Barker wouldn't have been anywhere else on that night and that morning... he wanted to help.

"I look at my kids and I see so much of him in them so he has left me with that. I am blessed."

Hazel said the family were 'really blessed' with the support they had from the 'police family' who 'scooped them up' in what was a surreal time.

PC Bill Barker (Image: Supplied)

She said: "I want to say thank you to the people of Cumbria...the communities in Cumbria, to everyone, whoever they are that was involved in the events of 2009, thank you from the bottom of my heart, because I don't know whether we would have got through it without everybody."

Chief Superintendent Carl Patrick, of Cumbria Police, also paid tribute to PC Bill Barker 15 years on from the 'tragic' events and commended the legacy that has been left in his name.

He said: "Bill has a real sense of public duty in what he did, he was a real professional police officer, he was well-liked and had a real passion for serving the community.

"Hazel and her wider family still remain part of the policing family, we have always tried to support them during these really difficult times."