Find out how Fire Fighters Charity has supported service users 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.
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. Alan Swales has joined our online Living Well Groups after supporting us for decades. He says they have helped him with increasing loneliness during the pandemic, as he cared single-handedly for his wife. Kaisha Robertson, whose father is a retired firefighter, is living with long-term health conditions which impact her movement and has been supported by our Physiotherapy and Welfare teams.
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”
Alan: “Your donations and support ensured I wasn’t alone throughout the pandemic”
Kaisha: “I missed out a lot on teenage years… the charity’s helped give me independence”
