Date: 11th March, 2022
A Bradford on Avon firefighter is taking on a massive fundraising challenge later this month to support three charities that work with the emergency services.
James Compton, who has been an on-call firefighter with Dorset & Wiltshire Fire and Rescue Service for seven years, will take on 20 hills climbs a day, for three days, while wearing fire kit and carrying a 70kg training dummy. Each day’s efforts will be around 1,000m of ascent – the equivalent of climbing Mount Snowdon!
He’s already training hard and the challenge itself will be on 25, 26 and 27 March, between 9am and 5pm each day. The routes will be:
- Day 1: Church Street to Budbury Place via Tory steps
- Day 2: Church Street to the top of Conigre Hill
- Day 3: Church Street to the top of Masons Lane
All of the money raised will be split between three emergency services charities – the Fire Fighters Charity, Police Care UK and the Ambulance Staff Charity.
James said: “These charities do amazing work supporting emergency services personnel, by providing help and support for illness, injury, mental health and financial hardship. Over the last two years, the pandemic has placed a huge amount of additional pressure on our emergency services, and this has resulted in a big increase in the number of blue light workers struggling with their mental health.”
He added: “I’d been thinking about doing some sort of physical challenge for charity, and the idea of the hill climb just developed alongside the desire to help those organisations making such a difference to colleagues. Obviously, the Fire Fighters Charity is essential to everyone within the fire and rescue service, but we share a site with the police at Bradford on Avon, and one of our firefighters has been driving for the ambulance service during the pandemic, so I’ve seen first hand how difficult the last two years have been for everyone.”
As well as raising as much money as possible, James is hoping to raise awareness of the mental health challenges faced by emergency services workers. He said: “If this can play a small part in normalising discussions and sharing experiences about mental health, therefore helping people to realise they are not alone and leading them to seek out the help they need, it will all be worth it.”
James has set up a Twitter account for the challenge @FFHillClimb and there will also be frequent updates on the Bradford on Avon fire station Facebook page @DWFRSBoAFireStation.
Anyone wanting to make a donation to his fundraising efforts can do so at www.peoplesfundraising.com/fundraising/ffhillclimb