Every fundraiser. Every lottery ticket. Every raffle entry. Every donation. Every holiday at one of our centres…
Together, they ensure no one in our fire services community ever has to feel alone. Thank you.
Over the last year, you’ve helped to raise thousands of pounds – reaching thousands of individuals and families across our fire services community. Because of you, they have access to lifelong care and support so they can live well and feel valued and recognised.
Here’s a short message from our Chief Executive, Sherine Wheeler, to say thank you, and you can see some of the year’s many highlights below.
Fundraising highlights
Firefighters, control officers, support staff, serving and retired colleagues, friends, family and members of the public organised individual and team fundraising challenges, events, celebrations and more in aid of us.
And just one of the highlights earlier in the year was our Mega March campaign, where fire stations organised a series of car wash events – 201 in March alone! That momentum has remained strong throughout the year since, showing the power of teamwork.
Elsewhere, we’ve also seen stations across the UK open their doors for fun-filled Open Days and, more recently, colleagues have joined their communities in planning festive fundraisers in aid of us.
In April, the London Marathon saw runners from across the globe come together to brave the heat in the country’s capital – and among the faces were some truly inspirational supporters of our charity – all of whom raised more than £60,000.
Other huge events included the London Landmarks Half Marathon, the Great North Run and many more.
Individual Fire and Rescue Services upped their fundraising efforts massively this year, and enjoying some celebrations at the start of the year was Staffordshire FRS, which marked the end of 12 months of amazing events and challenges to mark its 50th anniversary.
Meanwhile, London Fire Brigade have pulled out all the stops this year too – with one highlight seeing a group of 18 firefighters and their colleagues across the service raise thousands of pounds by completing the National Three Peaks Challenge.
In April, firefighter Brandon Fox from Dorset & Wiltshire FRS completed a 24-hour challenge – running 5km every hour, on the hour, in full fire kit, raising over £6,000.
The next month, two firefighters from Royal Berkshire FRS did a run between every wholetime station in the service – over 50 miles – raising over £3,000.
Elsewhere, Thames Valley Fire Control team (which covers Buckinghamshire, Royal Berkshire and Oxfordshire) completed a ‘Three Counties’ walk to celebrate their 10th anniversary of joining Fire Control teams, raising £3,600 for us.
And Emma Kirkman, a firefighter from Buckinghamshire FRS, took on an English Channel Swim in August in aid of us. While she had to be pulled out close to the end, due to strong tides, she still raised a huge £3,552.
Another top moment came in October when 18 firefighters and support staff cycled to Marine Court, as well as every neighbouring Fire and Rescue Service, in the ‘Big Brigade Bike Ride’.
That same month, Bury Training Centre organised a Halloween takeover – named Spooktacular – which included a haunted walk with volunteer actors from the local college, fairground rides, charity shop raffles and more, all raising over £3,000.
A West Yorkshire firefighter broke the world record for most chest-to-floor burpees in 24 hours in August, raising thousands of pounds for us in the process.
Nicola Leah, who serves with Illingworth Red Watch, completed 8,501 burpees at The Graft Gym in Sowerby Bridge on Saturday, with supporters gathering there to cheer her on throughout.
And in another incredible record attempt, a Lancashire firefighter, Greg Dunnings, pulled a van for 40 miles around Carlisle Airport’s runway in just 24 hours.
DMD Installations, based in Norwich, organised a golf day this summer which raised a record-breaking £40,000, to be split between four charities – including us.
Meanwhile fire service personnel from Suffolk Fire and Rescue Service, alongside their CFO, truly went the extra mile and proved teamwork always comes out on top by completing a half marathon while carrying a 14kg stretcher.
And that wasn’t the only Chief leading by example, as Nottinghamshire’s Chief Fire Officer, Craig Parkin, cycled 528 miles across the coastline of northern Scotland over just seven days, raising £1,500 in aid of us.
Joining them were trainee firefighters from Surrey, East Sussex and Guernsey, who teamed up to tackle a continuous, eight-hour tower climb in full kit – while carrying heavy breathing apparatus.
Proving there’s no geographic limits when it comes to fundraising, a courageous team of Devon firefighters cycled to Benidorm in fire kit — raising thousands of pounds for us.
The Peaks Lane Firefighters Fete raised a stagger £12,000 this year, while Penrith Station went above and beyond with an Open Day which raised a huge £7,000.
Towards the end of the year, Salford Fire Station hosted a Christmas Grotto which raised over £8,800 – an incredible achievement.
And we had teams of dedicated volunteers stationed at collection points along the Elizabeth Line in December, receiving thousands of pounds in generous donations from those passing by.
Other highlights included a firefighter tackling an 85-mile walk in full kit and carrying BA, another running round Jersey twice, the annual British Firefighter challenge and the hugely-popular Rawcliffe Park Bonfire event, supported by North Yorkshire FRS, which raised over £40,000 in aid of us.
There were some incredibly moving in-memory fundraisers organised over the last year too, and we send a heartfelt thank you to all those who chose to raise funds in aid of us, in memory of a loved one.
On 15 May, firefighters Jennie Logan and Martyn Sadler tragically lost their lives, alongside father-of-two Dave Chester, during the devastating incident at Bicester Motion.
In the months after, the strength of our fire family – and the kindness of so many in communities across the UK – shone through.
From individuals and local businesses to community groups and organisations, supporters came together to raise vital funds in memory of Jennie and Martyn, and in support of all those impacted by this heartbreaking loss.
Read about the impact they’ve made
Powering support through rentals, recycling and more
We work hard to generate income for our health and wellbeing services from the facilities we are lucky to have, as well as recycling banks across the UK, our online shop and more.
During the year we have:
- Reviewed and planned a relaunch of our online shop, engaging with Fire and Rescue Services to understand the gifts they would like to see and expanding our product range. The online shop remains a key part of our commercial income, and we are constantly exploring fresh ideas to add to our growing selection.
- Textile recycling income grew strongly, with just under £35,000 more raised from April to November 2025 than in the same months of 2024, driven by 473 extra tonnes collected – a fantastic achievement that reflects the team’s ongoing commitment. One highlight from 2025 included our Bag It and Bank It campaign in January, which generated £63,000 of income.
- We also introduced a mail locker initiative, following a similar model to textile recycling. Significant work has been carried out this year to secure partnerships and prepare logistics for the rollout. Over the coming financial year, we plan to place 1,200 parcel lockers across Fire and Rescue Service sites and commercial locations.
- Accommodation rental income at our centres rose 28.7% to £363,188 in April to November 2025, vs. April to November 2024. This is a remarkable increase, supported by the introduction of weekend, room-only rentals late in the year – an area we expect to grow further in 2026.
- We also welcomed 2,612 adults and 579 children to our centres as commercial visitors between April and November this year, compared to 1,670 adults and 390 children in the same period in 2024.
This year, we also welcomed new Centre Operations Managers at Harcombe House, Marine Court and Jubilee House.
In addition, the teams have been developing links to grow use and income generated from each centre as a venue for individuals, groups, and businesses – while continuing to prioritise space for the service users we support. Harcombe House hosted a successful wedding fair in November, generating enquiries for 2026. We aim to run similar events at Jubilee House and Marine Court.
A big thank you to everyone involved in our commercial activities, and we look forward to an even busier and more successful 2026.
Lottery, raffle and appeals:
We launched two campaigns in 2025. Over the summer, we shone a light on our physical rehabilitation services, and as part of that we heard from Harry and Ivy Greenwell, who had received support from our fantastic nursing team at Jubilee House and gone on to donate £1,000, after seeing our 2024 appeal.
And our 2025 Christmas appeal featured powerful stories from Rich Welch and his son Jack, as well as others across our fire services community. You can watch Rich and Jack’s video here.
We worked with our charity partners, Smile, and recruited over 2,250 donors for our Fire Fighters Lottery over the last year, each of whom is making a difference to members of our fire services community. As part of that impact, our 2025 Superdraw raised over £42,000.
Our Raffle smashed its target with over £55,000 raised from generous supporters this year.
We continue to receive support from over 40,000 people giving regular donations. This incredible community is made up of the public and Fire and Rescue Service personnel, united through compassion to support those serving their communities.
To close off the year, we also launched our first thankathon, calling over 100 donors to offer a personal thank you for their dedication and support.
And our supporter care team took over 4,000 calls from amazing supporters.
Corporate partnerships and donations:
We’ve once again had some incredible support from corporate supporters and partners this year.
Elvis & Kresse continued to donate 50% of the profits from their fire hose range to us, while we continued to receive generous support from long-term supporters including William Wood Watches, Oddballs and Autoglym.
Earlier in the year, we welcomed corporate supporter teams to experience being a ‘firefighter for a day’ at Wyre Forest Fire Station in Kidderminster.
The event offered participants from Serve and Protect Credit Union, Siderise and Frequentis hands-on experience with breathing apparatus, hose runs, dam building, RTC response exercises, and more, all led by professional firefighters.
Serve & Protect and MEIKO UK both sponsored one of our residential programmes throughout the year, directly supporting the vital health and wellbeing support offered to service users.
And later this year, we were delighted to confirm that XPS Group was sponsoring our 2025 Christmas fundraising campaign, marking the beginning of a three-year partnership supporting our vital work.
Meanwhile Flight Club went on a UK charity tour to raise funds for us and other UK charities. Read about that here.
Legacies and Trusts:
We also want to say a heartfelt thank you to all the Trusts who supported us in 2025, as well as the individuals and families who left a gift in their will.
Since January 2025, £231,388 has been donated by Trusts, including Zochonis, Wimbledon Foundation, PC David Rathband’s Blue Lamp Foundation, The Grace Trust and CarGurus Charitable Giving Fund.
We also received £989,975 in income from legacies since January 2025 and £540,624 in notifications for legacies since April.
Thank you so much to all involved, you’re making a life-changing difference.