Find out how The Fire Fighters Charity has supported beneficiaries 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.
Wife to a Scottish Volunteer Watch Manager, Bunty Macdonald has spent 30 years caring full-time for her son, who has a life-limiting form of epilepsy. But she doesn't let things get her down, preferring to approach each day with love and laughter. When London firefighter Kieran Egan's son needed extensive surgery to remove tumours from his ears, the Charity provided financial support so travel and accommodation could be one less thing to worry about. Six months ago, Berkshire firefighter Jamie Reeve's brother was hurt in an incident and remains in a critical condition in hospital. In the months that followed, our Welfare Services team have supported the family as they come to terms with their uncertain future. And when the coronavirus threatened their wedding day, Jamie and his partner, Charlotte, took matters into their own hands and got married in their back garden, just the two of them. It has been 10 years since Hampshire firefighters Jim Shears and Alan Bannon were killed in a fire in Shirley Towers, Southampton. For Jim’s widow, Carla, running and fundraising for the Charity that supported her family in the aftermath of the tragedy became an important part of her healing. When Hayward's Heath firefighter Mark Butler passed away in May, he left behind him a legacy that will never be forgotten in Sussex. His daughter, Megan, shares how the Charity helped her process her grief in the months that followed, and why she'll always see West Sussex Fire and Rescue as her extended family.
Bunty: “I don’t think of myself as his carer, I think of myself as his mum”
Kieran: “I could rely on the Charity while my family relied on me”
Jamie: “This was our torch to hold up against the darkness.”
Carla: “I hope Jim is proud of me. I like to think he is.”
Megan: “I had to relearn who I was, not just the girl whose dad had died”
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