Since receiving support for his mental health, firefighter Ross Turner has made it his mission to speak to new recruits in his Fire and Rescue Service about the importance of being open with their families.
He encourages them to ask loved ones to look out for any signs that they might be struggling or behaving differently – because, as Ross discovered first-hand, it’s often a family member who notices the changes first.
In his case, it was his wife, Lauren.
He went on to receive counselling, as well as attending our Reset Programme. And having seen the difference it made, Lauren is now running the London Marathon in aid of us in 2026 as a thank you – and has raised thousands of pounds already.
“Leading up to the time Ross was away, he was broken mentally,” says Lauren. “But once he’d been on the Reset Programme at Harcombe House, he was able to be the best version of himself.
“Thanks to Fire Fighters Charity, he came back so strong and has excelled in his career.”
As Ross, who is a Crew Manager with Hampshire and Isle of Wight FRS, recalls, the initial signs that he was struggling weren’t immediately obvious to him…
“I didn’t immediately spot signs,” he says. “I did notice I was a lot angrier than usual and quite snappy. We’ve got two young kids, who were only three and one at the time, and I found myself snapping at them for things that three and one-year-olds do all the time.
“It really wasn’t like me, and Lauren noticed it too. I knew then that something wasn’t right. I could see I was becoming somebody that I wasn’t.”
Lauren adds: “Ross is quite laidback as an individual, so it really wasn’t like him. He was also quite distant from the family. We’d be on a day out and you could just see that he was lost in his own thoughts.”
Ross reached out to us when he realised he needed some help to work through what he was dealing with. He was offered a series of remote counselling sessions which he says “really helped”.
He then went on to visit Harcombe House, our centre in Devon, on our Reset Programme, which offers participants the opportunity to build their resilience through group-based sessions.
As Lauren says, the impact it had continues today: “Ross still does a lot of the techniques that he learnt there, especially the grounding and breathing exercises.”
Ross, who also went on to receive physical health support from us at Marine Court following a shoulder operation in 2024, which he says helped him “get back on the run again”, now tries to spread the word to his colleagues about the support we offer; and the importance of talking to friends and family.
“You get conditioned to trauma and distress in the fire service and, while Lauren has slowly come to understand it and we’ve grown together over the last few years, if I go and tell my Mum and Dad some of the things I’ve seen, they’ll say ‘what are you taking about, this is insane?’ To me, it’s become part of the job, but it reminds me that what we’re doing isn’t normal,” says Ross.
“I think it’s important for me to make new starters aware of that and to encourage them to get their family to watch out for any signs that they’re struggling or just acting differently. They can then say something or do something about that.
“I’ve found night shifts, in particular, have a huge impact on me. If it’s been a tough shift – maybe I’ve had to perform CPR or someone’s sadly died – the last thing I want to be doing is going home and straight out to socialise, but that’s life, it carries on.
“I’m retained as well, so sometimes I’m straight off a shift onto on-call – if I’ve not had a rest, that can be brutal.”
“Seeing the positive impact it has on people’s lives has really inspired me to raise funds.”
Lauren Turner
Lauren adds: “For Ross and I, talking is really important. If he has had a particularly bad shift, it’s important he has a meaningful conversation about it, as well as the humour that the Watch share when they’re on the job to help them cope.”
As a way of saying thank you for the support Ross has received, Lauren is now preparing to run the 2026 London Marathon in aid of us – and has already raised thousands through a charity ball, raffles and other donations.
“It really struck me that Fire Fighters Charity is also there for family members. If I ever needed support, it’s there for me too,” she says.
“Seeing the positive impact it has on people’s lives has really inspired me to raise funds. I volunteer for a small charity myself and I see how hard it is to generate funds… Fire Fighters Charity needs to raise a lot of income to be able to keep offering the amazing programmes like Reset and its rehab weeks, and that can be really difficult. Doing the marathon was just my small way of helping.
“I’ve never run a marathon before so I’m fairly terrified, although really excited too! This will be a huge challenge for me.”
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