When Cosham firefighter Kevin Page broke his cruciate ligament playing football, he thought his career was over.
“I was off work for the best part of five to six months and was told by my specialist the job I’d done as a firefighter would be very difficult to carry on,” says Kevin. “So you can imagine, when I got that news, it was quite a blow. We don’t do a job where we sit behind a desk; we’re active and have got to be physically fit. There were stages where I questioned if I’d ever be able to do it again.”
The news about the future of his career being unclear also had an impact on Kevin’s mental health, especially when it came to the financial implications: “When you suffer with an injury and it affects your work, you question yourself. How are you going to support your family? You’ve got a mortgage to pay, kids to look after, so it’s always in the back of your mind financially.”
Kevin applied to The Fire Fighters Charity for help and said for the first time, he felt reassured that things would be okay.
He was invited to spend time at Marine Court, our residential centre in Littlehampton, making enough progress to be able to complete his operational fitness test. “The progress I made in that time, it was just an amazing transformation. I went in with hardly any movement in my leg and came out with full flexibility. The support I received at Marine Court was just second to none.
“It wasn’t just help with my injury, but you get help with all sorts of things, from sleep to eating healthy or mental health awareness. The range of support they have for all sorts of things, it was mind-blowing. I didn’t realise they offered half of what they do. The Fire Fighters Charity got me back to being able to work and be fully functional. In my opinion they’ve saved my career and I’ll be forever grateful to them.”
If you have been injured and are worried about its impact on your career, get in touch with us. We offer everyone coming to us for support a video consultation with one of our physios so we can start your personalised programme of recovery within a matter of days, if not hours, of first coming to us. And if you’d still like support after that, we can invite you for a residential stay at one of our centres.