NZ Bravery Star recipient’s 1100km mission to help police officers
- 6 days ago
- 3 min read
Kiah Radcliffe
March 17, 2026
A former cop who was awarded the New Zealand Bravery Star will be cycling the length of the North Island to raise awareness for officers suffering mental injuries.
Allister Rose is the founder of the Blue Hope Foundation, a charity that supports police officers and their families affected by trauma, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and service-related injury.
He left Wellington on Monday to cycle to Cape Reinga as part of an initiative called Hope Ride, aimed at bringing awareness to towns and cities around the North Island about the work the Blue Hope Foundation does.
Rose was no stranger to dealing with mental demons.
His journey to starting the foundation began 19 years ago as one of the police officers called to respond to a gunman on the loose in the Lower Hutt bush. “I was involved in a pretty horrific shooting in 2007 with Graeme Burton.”
On June 6, 2007, convicted killer Graeme Burton shocked the country by going on a rampage in the hills above Wainuiomata, shooting dead a quad biker and wounding four others.
At the time of the shooting, Burton had already served 14 years for stabbing to death a nightclub lighting technician in 1992.
“We shot him, blowing out the femoral artery in his right leg to disable him. There was blood everywhere, almost instantly,” Rose recalled to Stuff in 2023.
That incident started his own battle with PTSD, and it’s taken him years to learn to live with the psychological ups and downs of the disorder.
“It's taken a lot of therapy for me to get to this point.”
Rose came up with the idea for the foundation after a close friend’s funeral in 2019 and by 2022 the charity was officially up and running.
The organisation was set up to deal with suicide prevention among police officers, however, it has slowly become a risk-management and co-ordination body for police officers with mental injuries.
“It’s the police families that see the guys come home and in a bad state, they’re drinking, shouting at the missus, yelling at the kids, they’ve got hyper-vigilance,” Rose said.
Often they use alcohol as a way to get to sleep.
Rose said from experience that if they can get to those affected early, “we can help them”.
Sometimes that help looked like assisting people through ACC, workplace processes and employment rights, or providing practical support and guidance.
“These guys have done a thing or two for New Zealand. They've been in some terrible situations and are suffering the consequences of their occupation. Police officers don't do the job for money. They do it because they have a sense of community.”
Rose added that it was incredibly rewarding to be able to do this work and to see how much the foundation helps officers and their families.
That was part of the reason Rose decided to do the Hope Ride between Wellington and Cape Reinga.
“I’ll be talking to communities and looking to engage with police families ... because word needs to get out about the good work that we do.”
He left Parliament Grounds at 9am after a few speeches. It would take him six weeks to complete the ride: “I’m not going hell for leather.”
Rose encouraged anyone who saw him on his travels to stop and chat.
“We're just going to talk to families, and we [will be] stopping at police stations, letting them know that support is available, that we're volunteers, and that we give a shit.”
Kiah Radcliffe is a regional reporter focused on breaking news, arts and lifestyle stories.
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