North Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service’s newest wholetime trainees set themselves a massive challenge. They planned a 14 hour ladder climb to scale the equivalent height of Mount Everest, TWICE, all in the name of charity. Now they are celebrating achieving their goal THREE times!
The 15 trainees went up and down a total of 17,696 metres on ladders from dawn till dusk at North Yorkshire Fire Training Centre in Easingwold on Sunday (27th June 2021)
Not an easy feat and all donations will be going towards a worthy cause – The Fire Fighters Charity.
Every year, thousands of fire fighters are injured whilst protecting the public. Every 30 seconds in the UK, fire fighters are called to an incident, putting their lives on the line, and often sustaining physical injuries whilst carrying out their duties.
The Fire Fighters Charity is there for fire fighters during their times of need, and assists thousands of individuals every year, by providing pioneering treatment and support services.
They do this by offering a range of support including advice and signposting or residential rehabilitation, mental and emotional wellbeing and recuperation programmes.
It costs over £9 million every year to keep the Charity running, and with no government funding, they are completely reliant upon donations from the general public and fire community to support over 55,000 members of the UK’s fire and rescue services and their dependants, as well as the retired fire services community.
Crew Manager Darren Smith, North Yorkshire Fire & Rescue Service said: “The Firefighters Charity saved my career and I will be forever indebted to the amazing and dedicated staff that work for them.
“In November 2015 during physical training I sustained an injury to my spine; it was diagnosed that three vertebrae in my neck had disintegrated and I required surgery to fuse them and fit a titanium cage.
“I spent three months in the care of the hospital and was worried about my return to work as my progress was slow. It was during this time when I remembered about Jubilee House in Penrith – a rehabilitation centre and part of the Firefighters Charity family of establishments.
“The centre contains gyms, hydrotherapy pools and quality experts on site that understand a wide range of injuries and are incredibly experienced in finding your route back to recovery.
“My first visit of two weeks was an intense experience but made easier by the amazing staff with shared experiences. I needed to return on further occasions before I eventually found myself back to usual.
“Jubilee house not only helped with my physical recovery, but also with my mental recuperation through mindfulness sessions and counselling.”
You can still donate towards this challenge and support the fifteen trainees and The Fire Fighters Charity. They have raised over £2,600 so far.