Rich’s Story
For Rich Welch, family is everything. When he’s not at work in his role as Assistant Chief Fire Office with Avon FRS, he’s spending time with his partner, four sons and five grandchildren.
But family doesn’t stop at home for him. His 30-year career in the fire service – most of which was with London Fire Brigade – has led to him building a family at work too, and they’ve helped him through some of the most challenging moments of his firefighting role.
The toughest of those came in June 2017, when he was called to the Grenfell Fire tragedy. The scars from it stay with him today but, he says, our support in the months that followed proved life-changing.
After the Grenfell tragedy. We invited individuals and also entire crews to Harcombe House. That work shaped our Reset Programme, which is made up of group-based sessions covering everything from goal setting and managing stress to pool therapy and relaxation, tailored to individual needs.
For Rich, 53, his experiences instilled in him the importance of talking to those around him – whether it be colleagues, family or Fire Fighters Charity – and he’s since passed that on to his youngest son, Jack, who is also now a firefighter with London Fire Brigade.
And both Rich and Jack are now sharing their stories in support of our Winter Appeal, which urges our supporters to donate this festive period to support other brave individuals in our fire services community, just like them.