Casey Poor, who has served at the fire station for five years, is busy training to scale the highest mountain in Wales over the course of the last weekend in March along with eight friends from Crawley Down where he lives.
Retained firefighters often have full-time jobs elsewhere, but live or work within close proximity to a fire station and are paged to respond to emergencies as and when they are required.
The 25-year-old, who works as a carpenter’s mate for a friends company when he is not on duty at Turners Hill has been busy training at the gym, as well as building up his stamina with extended dog walks with border terrier Maddie at home.
He said: “I have always been quite fit, and like to maintain my fitness – it’s all part of the job. But the idea of doing something challenging while raising money for charity came about after Christmas, when we were all feeling a bit lethargic in that post-Christmas lull.
“We probably all over-indulged a bit at Christmas, so having something to focus on and train hard for seemed like a really good idea.
“Scaling Mount Snowdon is going to be a tough climb, it’s almost 2,000m above sea level and the weather up there can be quite unpredictable, so we are all training hard at the moment.
“Taking on the challenge for a charitity that means a lot to me is really spurring me on.
“The Fire Fighters Charity is a fantastic charity that helps support serving and retired firefighters and their families, with their mental health, physical health and social wellbeing needs, and it is a cause very close to many of my colleague’s hearts.”
Chief Fire Officer, Sabrina Cohen-Hatton, said: “Many of us make New Year’s Resolutions to eat healthier, or do more exercise, but we are now almost at the end of February and Casey is still doing a great job of training hard in preparation for this epic challenge next month. All of us at West Sussex Fire & Rescue Service wish him all the very best of luck.”
To support Casey in his fundraising efforts visit his Virgin Money Giving page here: https://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/caseypoor
