An officer who has shaped her career around helping others has won the Lifetime Achievement Award at the 2025 Devon & Cornwall Police Federation Recognition Awards.

6 November 2025

PC Natasha Hill, who has been with the force for 26 years, is a full-time member of the wellbeing team, but before that volunteered much of her own time to support colleagues and empower them to look after their mental health.

Natasha travels around the force delivering wellbeing and mindfulness training, and leads on women's health, including menopause and endometriosis. She organises the virtual wellbeing conference for the police and emergency services, WellFest, which is now in its sixth year and has won an Oscar Kilo award.

Last year, nearly 10,000 people across the UK requested tickets.

As well as all this, Natasha leads on financial wellbeing, is a trustee for the South West Police Compassionate Fund, and has a wellbeing dog that she takes around stations.

She said: “My passion for helping colleagues with their wellbeing came from my personal experience – I really struggled with stress and mental health as a result of things that were happening at work and at home.

“I felt more needed to be in place to support officers and staff to make sure that they were looking after themselves. Everyone in the organisation does really difficult work, day in and day out, and most of us don't properly know how to look after ourselves.

“Previously in my career, I worked with victims of child sexual exploitation for 10 years. And now I'm helping colleagues within the organisation. So I feel really lucky that I've been able to do both of those things.”

Natasha recently got an Oscar Kilo 9 wellbeing and trauma support dog Murphy, who comes with her when she does TRiM assessments and peer support work.

She said: “I used to go into offices and people didn’t really want to talk, but if you go over with the dog, it can open up really difficult conversations. People will be saying hello to the dog and then you can say: ‘So how are you doing then?’. They might say: ‘Actually, not great’, and it leads on from there, and then support can be put in place.”

Natasha said she was “lost for words” when she heard she’d received a Federation Award: “It’s a huge honour and, as I'm coming to the end of my career, it's amazing to be recognised.”

Devon & Cornwall Police Federation Chair Katie Clements said: “What an incredible police officer. What an incredible person.

“Natasha is driven by trying to build a more resilient and compassionate workforce. She has helped countless officers and staff members and we are very lucky to have her in the force.

“She is a very worthy winner of this Award. Something tells us there is much more to come.”

Natasha will attend the 2025 Devon & Cornwall Police Federation Recognition Awards on Thursday 6 November. 

The Devon & Cornwall Police Federation Recognition Awards are in association with Axon.

Also sponsoring the Awards are Niche, Uniform Mortgages, Gallagher, Serve and Protect Credit Union, Warren & Co, The National Police Healthcare Scheme, THB Legal, Police Mortgages, Bluline Health, Pointers Financial and No1 CopperPot Credit Union.