Jon: “Your support was life-saving – I literally didn’t have food to put on the table”
West Yorkshire Crew Manager, Jon Arey, received support and guidance from us when he moved house with his daughter and faced financial challenges.
Real life story categories
Find out how The Fire Fighters Charity has supported beneficiaries across the UK and how you can share your story with the fire community. Click categories or regions below to filter the list of stories.
Heather Dunne, who works in Fire Control, has received support on our Reset Programme, through Rest and Recharge stays at Harcombe House and on our online Hope Programme. On-call firefighter Iwan Ward and his family received our support when he went through a difficult time following some traumatic shouts. Here, he and his wife Anita share how we helped all of them – remotely and at Harcombe House. Retired on-call firefighter Gil Schaeffer received our support – both for rehabilitation, as well as with his family - after having a life-saving heart operation. Nikki Bridges works as a wholetime and on-call firefighter with Hampshire and Isle of Wight FRS. Here, she recalls attending one of our weeks dedicated to single parents at Harcombe House…
Heather: “The charity’s helped me through cancer and ongoing anxiety, I’m so grateful”
Iwan: “I knew, while I might be okay at first, I didn’t know what I’d be like in 15-20 years”
Gil: “I owe my life to the fire service and will be eternally grateful to The Fire Fighters Charity”
Nikki: “Having a week at Harcombe House with other solo parents was amazing”