An Enfield firefighter has donated the £1,000 prize he was given by Absolute Radio to Fire Fighters Charity in order to support our urgent appeal.
Jimmy Durant was nominated by his wife, Cassandra, to receive the prize from the station’s Breakfast Show, who, along with Wickes, is saying thank you to keyworkers for their efforts throughout the coronavirus crisis.
Jimmy volunteered for the Pandemic Multi-agency Response Team (PMART), who worked to ensure response to COVID-19 deaths that occurred in the community, whether at home, in a care home or a hospice. Their work has helped reduce demand on the London Ambulance Service, enabling them to prioritise emergency cases.
“Working in the PMART was challenging at times and involved long shifts during the most severe period of the last few months,” says Jimmy. “My thoughts will always be with those who were affected by the coronavirus. I’m pleased my colleagues and I were in a position to be able to step up and help the public. It’s very humbling to be nominated and an honour to receive this prize, which I accept on behalf of all of my colleagues who volunteered and helped protect London during these testing times. I was just happy to be able to do my bit.”
Breakfast Show host Dave Berry commended the ‘heroes” who were ‘stepping up when people needed them’ during the pandemic and thanked Jimmy for his role in supporting his community through these difficult times.
When asked what he was going to do with the money during his appearance on the show, Jimmy said he would be donating the whole amount to our Charity, to try and help with our urgent appeal for fundraising, after the pandemic has seen our fundraising significantly impacted.
“As someone who has used their services, I know the incredible work the charity does to help rehabilitate fire service staff and support their families,” says Jimmy. “The charity is close to pretty much every fire fighter in the country but they’re struggling because of COVID-19. So I’d like to make the full donation to Fire Fighters Charity. They do fantastic work and they’ve been doing their best to continue to do that work throughout the pandemic.”
If you’d like to listen to Jimmy’s appearance, you can listen to it via Absolute Radio’s website. (He is featured around 43 minutes in).
Here’s Station Commander (and one of our Charity Reps) Matt Hayward accepting a cheque on behalf of the charity from Jimmy, who has been with London Fire Brigade for two years since transferring from Hertfordshire FRS.
On behalf of everyone in the charity, we’d like to say a massive thank you to Jimmy for showing such incredible generosity. We don’t know what we would do without people like you.
Jimmy is in good company when it comes to London Fire Brigade supporting the charity. In Hounslow over 70 firefighters and senior officers took part in a 24/7 marathon with teams running, walking and jogging in a relay on running machines. Having surpassed their target of £2,000 within just 24 hours, they raised a fantastic £10,206 for NHS Charities Together and The Fire Fighters Charity.
And if you’d like to follow Jimmy’s example, please donate to our urgent appeal. Let’s get through this together.