Last year, Doncaster fire crew raised £4,500 after a 10k charity hike – carrying a ten metre ladder.
Crews from Askern and Adwick fire stations carried the 10.5m ladder around their area.
We got the chance to catch up with Craig Sawyer, the legendary Mo bro behind this epic Movember initiative.
" As a fire service, men’s health and especially mental health, is always at the forefront of our minds. "
We had an amazing response to our Movember fundraising campaign in Askern. Initially starting off with five or six of us in the team, this quickly grew to 14 people with guys from other stations joining the team when they heard of our success.
The overall response was resoundingly positive with lots of talk on facebook and other socials regarding the work we were doing and what a great cause it was.
While we were out doing the ladder-carry event, we had hundreds of people stop and ask what we were doing and why, with a lot of them thinking that Movember was just about growing a moustache, not realising the message and work that goes into both men’s mental and physical health.
As we work as a close-knit team anyway, it was quite easy to gain some initial interest in starting the team. Mainly face to face with a bit of banter involved. Baiting some of the more baby-faced guys into entering to prove they can grow a moustache and making it a contest for the best moustache. As the success grew and we started to raise significant cash, we found more and more guys wanted to join the team as perhaps their own station / team wasn’t as committed or getting the same results.
As the campaign progressed, and we could see how well we were doing, there was a huge competitive urge to be the best emergency services fundraisers!
Personally, I signed up and set up the team as captain as I have a number of close friends who have struggled with their mental health and quite possibly wouldn’t be here today if it wasn’t for the work of organisations such as Movember. As a fire service, men’s health and especially mental health, is always at the forefront of our minds.
This Movember, we want the to be part of havin fun doin good all over again, so we are looking at a ladder climb covering the height of Mount Everest. 8848m. We are hoping to do this in the centre of Doncaster at the shopping centre, to get maximum publicity / footfall.
Support Doncaster Fire crew's epic challenge.