Find out how The Fire Fighters Charity has supported beneficiaries across the UK and how you can share your story with the fire community. Click categories or regions below to filter the list of stories.
For Vicky Shakesby, a Group Manager with Humberside FRS, encouraging her colleagues to get in touch with us if they need a helping hand is incredibly important to her. Here she explains why… Thanks to your kind donations, we’ve been able to support Paul Burchett - a firefighter with Humberside FRS – with his physical health and through mounting financial challenges, which in turn had begun impacting his mental health. This summer we are launching Fire Friends, a telephone befriending provision, offering social support and connection to our retired beneficiaries - and one of the first to try it is Joan O'Connor. Paul Astle, who was a firefighter with South Yorkshire FRS for 18 years, was his wife’s full-time carer for several years. He says spending time on our online Living Well Groups became a break he really needed in the pandemic. Calum Balding, a wholetime firefighter with North Yorkshire FRS, was unable to do any exercise or work for more than a year as he battled bowel cancer. Here he reveals how he was helped on his journey back to fitness…
Vicky: “As firefighters, we’re not superhuman – our brain can only cope with so much”
Paul: “Having the reassurance that I can feed myself and my three boys means everything”
Joan: “The befriending calls I’ve had from you are wonderful, I couldn’t do without them”
Paul: “The Living Well Groups offer that bit of escapism when you’re feeling lonely”
Calum: “It’s thanks to your donations that I’ve been helped amid my recovery from cancer”
