Helping the community a joy for Lesley

All you need to do is write an advertisement that reads 'Want to meet men, lose weight and have a laugh?' and you'll have them queuing up.

Or so Lesley Roche, Chesham police station's newest police community support officer (PCSO), believes.

Actually, I made the last bit up. In fact, what caught the eye of the 50-year-old grandmother when she saw a police recruitment advertisement last autumn was the bit that asked: 'Can you use your own initiative and stay calm in a crisis and are you a good communicator?'

The weight loss (a result of pounding the beat) and witty banter with colleagues (male and female) are merely perks of a job Mrs Roche says she has come to love.

She said: "I have laughed more than I have ever laughed in my life."

At only 4ft 8in tall and with very few academic qualifications, Mrs Roche confesses she seemed an unlikely candidate.

After several years spent bringing up two daughters and doing various jobs, including as a health care assistant at Stoke Mandeville Hospital, Mrs Roche had been left behind by the computer age.

She said: "I could shop on the internet, but that was all."

However, she leapt at the word 'communicator'. She added: "I know people confide in me and I love helping people."

Much of her job involves visiting the groups that make communities tick, from neighbourhood action committees to parish councils, shopkeepers and WI members.

She has now mastered a Blackberry and says she hands out her card as often as 20 times a day to people who appreciate her sensitive approach. "Women feel assured by me and men don't perceive me as a threat," she said. "I'm like their mum, so they're not immediately aggressive.

"People say it's lovely to have put a face to a name. They phone me for a huge range of things, because they haven't seen a bobby on the beat for ages."

She said there is no typical day. She might be called on to help find a missing person, control traffic after an accident, mount an incident 'scene watch' or deal with anti-social behaviour.

She praised the police for the flexible shifts but recently increased her hours because she enjoys her job so much.

Mrs Roche's patch includes Lee Common, Chartridge and Flaunden.

When I expressed surprise that such villages needed their own police officer, she said drugs were a problem everywhere and added that fly-tipping was 'a nightmare' in Latimer.

After six months on the beat, Mrs Roche said her only regret was that she had lacked the confidence to join the police sooner.

She said: "Had I been taller, I would have gone for this earlier. Women of my age have a lot to bring to this job because we have lots of life experience. My advice to other women is, just go for it."

To find out more about how to become a community support officer, call Thames Valley recruitment on 0845 8 505 505.