Firefighters' hill climb for colleague with cancer

Firefighters are set to take part in a 24-hour endurance challenge on The Wrekin in Shropshire to raise money for a colleague battling cancer.

Representatives from Tweedale fire station in Telford are to climb up the 407m (1,335ft) hill on the hour, every hour, in full gear to support Tyler Davies, 35, who was diagnosed with transitional cell carcinoma.

The fire service said they were challenging themselves "quite intensively" from 12:00 BST on Saturday, but it was "absolutely a valid thing for us to do to support Tyler and his family".

Station manager Dave Joyner said Davies was currently off work, but the service was supporting him and he was "still very much part of the team".

Joyner said the firefighter had been diagnosed with terminal cancer, which has spread to his spine.

"As a colleague and also as a friend and as a committed member of our community, it's really important that we support Tyler and we stick by him," he said.

"It just goes to show something like this really brings us together and it shows us how kind of close-knit we are as a fire service."

In the climb, the group would be "going on the hour, every hour, for 24 hours".

"So it's full fire kit for the first leg. Some of the firefighters are doing it in breathing apparatus just to see how difficult it actually is and see if it's achievable," Joyner explained.

"But following the first one, we won't be continuing with the breathing apparatus just because of the nature of changing over the air supply and things like that."

He said their kit was "really good" at stopping heat coming in, but "probably not the best for letting your body temperature heat come out".

"So that's definitely gonna add to the compexity of this challenge."

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