Nearly £90,000 was raised for The Fire Fighters Charity

Nearly £90,000 was raised  for The Fire Fighters Charity in Cambridgeshire during 2017/18.

Crews across the county as well as local fire charity champions, with the support of the local communities took part in events and activities to raise money for the national charity that supports UK fire service personnel and their families.

Fundraisers included firefighters getting involved in bike ride challenges, a world record rugby match, car washes, fitness classes, open days, an annual bingo night and a fire and steam show, as well as Christmas sleigh rides and a fire engine pull, which raised nearly £5,000.

As well as through events, an impressive £19,000 was raised from the recycled clothing banks at stations and community locations across the county. With a bit of healthy competition amongst the stations, St Neots station took first prize for raising the most in their recycling banks for the year, with £1,920, Linton in second place (£1,430) and Cambourne in third (£1,329).

The donations will be used by the charity to offer support services to firefighters around the country, in areas of heath, wellbeing, advice information, family and child programmes, nursing, recuperation and more.

Chief Fire Officer, Chris Strickland said: “A huge thank you to the public who have supported our fundraising events or put bags of clothing into the special recycling bins on our fire stations. We are continually bowled over by the support and generosity of the public and it is very much appreciated. I’d also like to thank our staff who have organised fundraising activities during the year and the people that have given up their time to help them. All of the support makes a massive difference to the charity, which does some great work supporting fire service staff and their families, from our own service and others across the country. We’re really grateful to all those who give up their time to give something back, they are an inspiration to us all.

“We’ve already seen some fantastic events and challenges organised for this year, as part of the #My75Miles challenge to celebrate the charity’s 75th anniversary, and we hope to see many more as the year goes on with lots of opportunities for people to get involved. Let’s hope we can do even better this year!”