The last year has seen some incredible fundraising achievements from our supporters, all of which have helped raise vital funds so we can continue supporting thousands of individuals and families every year.
And we wanted to celebrate some of them in the second episode of our new-look Shout! Podcast.
In the show, we look ahead at some of the exciting things we have planned in 2025 – both across our health and wellbeing support, and fundraising.
We start by chatting with one of our 2025 London Marathon runners, Sam, a firefighter with London Fire Brigade, who shares how we supported him with both his physical and mental health.
We then go on to speak to the CEO of one of our recycling partners, Owen Ritchie, to find out exactly what happens to your clothes when they’re recycled – before looking ahead at our upcoming Bag it and Bank it campaign.
And finally, we chat with our Chief Executive, Sherine Wheeler, about some of the highlights from her time with our charity so far, as well as taking a deeper dive into the key health and wellbeing challenges facing out fire services community today.
If these stories resonate with you, remember our Support Line is always available: 0800 3898820. Be sure to follow or subscribe to the Shout!Podcast to stay updated with our latest episodes.
Read the full transcript:
Please note: This transcript has been AI-generated so there may be some errors.
Welcome to Episode 2
Rebecca: Hi everyone and welcome back to our Shout!Podcast. In every episode of the show, we’re going to be bringing you a mix of insight from those who work across the charity, as well as some incredible stories from members of our fire family who we’ve supported and from those who’ve taken on some inspirational fundraising challenges for us.
So please rate, follow or subscribe to the show on your usual podcast platform.
Then sit back and enjoy hearing from one of our 2025 London Marathon runners, Sam, who I spoke to recently to find out how we supported him with both his physical and mental health.
And if you’ve ever wondered what happens to all the clothes that fill our recycling banks, we’ve got a great chat coming up with the CEO of one of our recycling partners to find out how the textiles you donate get turned to funds to help us support more members of our fire family.
And finally, we’ve also got a chat with our Chief Executive, Sherine Wheeler, who shares some of the highlights from her time with our charity so far, as well as taking a deeper dive into the key health and welling challenges facing our fire services community today.
So to start today’s episode, I chat with Sam, a firefighter with London Fire Brigade, who will be running the 2025 London Marathon for us after receiving some life changing support…
Meet Sam, an LFB firefighter who received our support
Rebecca: Thank you so much for joining today, Sam. So just tell me a little bit about why you first became a firefighter. Was it your dad being a firefighter himself that inspired that for you?
Sam: Yeah, that definitely helped. My whole life I’d known him as a firefighter, based at Bow, and seeing the lifestyle on the jobs that he did and that…really just to get excited to listen to stories and see what he come back with. So that definitely helped. I tried office work for a little while and I just couldn’t deal with it. So I need to stay different every day. So when I had the opportunity and was old enough, I applied immediately.
Rebecca: And just tell me a little bit about when you first heard about our charity and the support we offer. Was that before you became a firefighter yourself?
Sam: Yes. My dad had torn all the ligaments in his ankle and I believe we went to Harcombe House to get the rehab and the facilities there and obviously he took us with him – I got to see first hand what they did and that this, this whole kind of fire brigade family outside of London Fire Brigade, and saw something that really helped him and benefitted us as well. I’ve since used them as well.
Rebecca: Did he tend to get involved in any fundraising activities and did you see that early on as well?
Sam: Yeah, yeah, I saw quite a bit of the fundraising through like open days and other events that he did. So he’d always done his best to raise money for the charity and that’s why I’ve kind of followed his footsteps really and done the exact same for him.
Sam shares his experience of our support
Rebecca: So, how early into your career was it that you actually needed our support yourself and what led to that?
Sam: Fairly early, I think it was probably about three or four years in. I was on the way to work and had a head-on collision. So I got in contact with the charity and fairly sharply they again sent me to Harcombe House. Had me in like a week’s course to get the rehab and the facilities there to get me moving the back again.
Rebecca: I was just going to say how were you injured? Was it quite a long recovery period? What actually happened?
Sam: It was mainly just like bad whiplash and quite bad muscle pain around my neck and back – I had quite limited movement.
Rebecca: Did you find anything in particular beneficial, with the gym and the swimming for example? Was there anything that really helped you while you were there?
Sam: I think the combination of everything was amazing if I’m honest. We had the hydrotherapy which is great. The physios there help quite a lot and they’re even doing the gym work just to help me kind of be in a comfortable space with people, people that knew what they were doing to kind of help me to not push myself but push it enough that I’ve got the better faster.
Rebecca: Do you think having had that support quite early on you would encourage anyone else that might need support early in their career to get in touch with us?
Sam: 100% I think yeah, it’s the second you join, it’s there for you. So I think yeah, as soon as people join, they should be on it. And I say reach out to them, because they’re definitely there for us.
Rebecca: We’re obviously there for families and spouses and partners as well. And I believe your wife had some of our support did she? Is that right?
Sam: She did, yeah. So my wife’s American. She moved over from New York and she moved just before Covid. I think she felt a little bit isolated anyway from being away and then locked in the house as well. So she went through a bit of like a kind of stress and mental anxiety and, well, a few other things happened and I told her to reach out to the charity, see if they can help. And she did. I made the initial contact and they contacted her and they sent her on one of the refresher courses, the Reset Programme. And yeah, she had an amazing time, to say it was five days away from the home, five days away from everything really, to be with people that all kind of needed each other. And yeah, she came back like a lot happier and definitely kind of started the process on mending her, making her feel good again. So yeah, it was fantastic. It was there her.
Rebecca: That’s brilliant. And do you think, since she’s been home, she’s able to take some of the tools that she learned on that programme back home with her and has that helped her longer term?
Sam: Definitely, yeah. She still uses a lot of it. It’s funny because she’s still in contact with some of the group from that as well. So again, she’s made a set of friends that she probably wouldn’t have necessarily met if it weren’t for the charity. And for someone again settled in another country who doesn’t really know anyone here, that was nice to get like a little group of friends outside of people that I know and then to say with the work she’s done as well, all the breathing stuff she still does now.
Rebecca: That’s brilliant. And it’s probably a really nice opportunity for you to learn a bit more about the mental wellbeing side that we offer as well because you’d obviously received a lot of physical health support yourself. Have you since needed any of our mental health support?
Sam: Yes. So recently a few things happened, just a bad time… if it happens, it all happens at once. So my birth of my baby, a newborn girl, the birth wasn’t easy and there was a few other little things in between and just everything culminated so I needed a bit of time, hence the beard!
I contacted the charity pretty much immediately and just said I need a bit of help, and they were so fast in getting back to me and I’ve done the the six therapy sessions online. And they were amazing. The person I spoke to, I think that the change in my first ones and now I really felt it and she, she gave me tools to kind of work forward with and then hopefully she’s going to put me on one of the Reset Programmes. I was meant to do one this month but I couldn’t do it. So I’ll be doing it again in February. So yeah, they’ve definitely given me a lot.
Rebecca: Do you think, obviously you reached out for help really early on, is that something you would encourage in any of your colleagues who might show those early signs of anxiety and stress, for example?
Sam discusses importance of reaching out early
Sam: 100%. I think again, the job we do is hard enough and some I know every station, every brigade or fire service is different but I think the job as a heart was a stressful job and then you put on top of it a lot of the stuff they’re asking more and more of us and more things to come from us, and I think it’s just so important to keep an eye on what your mental health. And again being surrounded by a bunch of firefighters and no time to changing a bit. But it’s quite easy just to be like, I’m fine, I fine, don’t worry about me, I’m fine. And try and kind of be tough… don’t need help. And I think we kind of need to step away from that and if you do need help, get it because it’s just. It’s there for us. And it’s so important and it’s done me the world of good because I think from it. I’m better at home, I’ll be better going forward and for my daughter, I’ll be better for her, better for my wife as well. So I think it’s just. Yeah, I encourage people, really encourage people to if you need to help, go get it because it’s there for us. So definitely use it.
Rebecca: And would you tell people it was quite easy to get that support, because I know a lot of people probably feel quite nervous about reaching out to us?
Sam: Very. It wasn’t judgmental at all. I applied online originally and then I got a couple of phone calls to just check in and kind of see the best route for me. And everyone I spoke to was very understanding, very nice. There was no rush or no judgement or you’ve got to do this, you’ve got to do that. It was very much at my own pace. What you need and how can we facilitate. And it was. Yeah, everyone was fantastic from day one.
Rebecca: Since then, or sort of during that process, I suppose, you signed up to do our London Marathon, didn’t you? What kind of inspired that for you?
Sam: For the last few years, I’ve always tried to do something to raise money for the charity, so I organised the ladder climb in September for a couple years now. Done a few things at station. But 10 years ago, I did the London Marathon for the first time and I thought, just to see ten years later, like, if I’ve still got it in me, but, also just difference in fitness levels. And I think that to get to do that for the charity, they done to the opportunity, really. And because. Just because what they’ve done for me, they’ve done so much for me and I just, if I can raise money for them any way possible, that’s always the way. So, yeah, Landon Marathon was the one.
Rebecca: Good for you. Rather you than me! Do you think it’s an important message as well? Because obviously, at the end of the day, we are a charity. Would you rely on these donations and these fundraising efforts to be able to keep offering the services that we do? Is that an important message for you to spread the word about the importance of fundraising wherever anyone can?
Sam: Definitely. And again, when I was down at Harcombe House, one thing that kind of shocked me was that they got no funding at all other than through fire, through charity work and through fundraising. So that really blew my mind that there was nothing else coming in. So everything really is reliant on us. So I do think’s so important for every firefighter out there and families and all that to kind of do what they can and do their bit to help the charity, because it’s there for us. So we should be there for them, really. So, yeah, any opportunity I think we get, we have to kind of do.
Sam shares his plans to run the London Marathon
Rebecca: How’s the training going? How’s it feeling?
Sam: I did a Half Marathon a couple of months ago, three months, just to see how. Where I am. it’s been going all right. I’m lucky. My wife was a track coach and a runner herself. So she’s been helping one of her former coaches who’s going to send me a plan based around my, shift hands. So, again, it’s yes, I’ve had a couple of weeks off because I pulled me back, but it’s, it’s going all right. I don’t know how quick I’ll be and I don’t know how I feel afterwards compared to when I was 10 years younger.
Rebecca: And do you have plans for your fundraising? Are there any things that you found in the past have really helped to boost the fundraising coming in for it?
Sam: I’ve just tried to do like little mini events in between. So as I say, I’ve signed up for a few 10k’s and half marathons and in between kind of just before the marathon and the build up. So just trying to do little events, like little and often before the day and just to keep it fresh in people’s head. So like, every other month, every month or so, I do something just to remind people that I’m doing this. But I don’t want to keep kind of please give me. Please help. Please help. But it’s also quite important to obviously get the money and to raise money for the charity. So, yeah little and often trying to do little bits here and there, as many events as possible for the big day.
Rebecca: If you’re looking to plan a fundraiser, like Sam in 2025, you can find details of how to get in touch with us and see some ideas to get you started in the Show Notes.
Meet Owen Ritchie, CEO of Clyde Recycling
Rebecca: Next, I chat to Owen Ritchie, CEO of Clyde Recycling in Scotland, about our hugely successful recycling campaign across the UK and exactly what happens to your unwanted clothing when you donate it to one of our recycling banks.
Rebecca: Thanks so much, Owen, for joining me today. You’re one of our valued recycling partners. we’ve got them right across the UK. You yourself at Clyde Recycling are based up in Scotland, can you just tell me a little bit about how Clyde and our charity first started working together. How did that actually happen?
Owen: Well, it happened over 15 years ago and we got chosen to do the whole of Scotland for the charity. So it just started from there basically. We started surveying stations round about the Glasgow area and and then grew from there and back then it was more districts so you had like Strathclyde FRS and things like that.
It was a wee bit more tricky initially. But then over the years it’s developed and then they scrapped the regions and now it was just Fire Scotland which made that a lot, a lot easier for us to kind of jump through the hoops and we just keep placing banks each year and I’ve got another 14 in my yard to be placed in the coming weeks. So yeah, continuing to grow each year.
Rebecca: Excellent news. where would people find those banks then? Are they largely around fire stations, or are there any other locations?
Owen: Ourselves, it’s fire stations at the minute and we’re all over Scotland. We’ve got over 120 banks placed over 100 sites. And I’m sure you can go ono the Fire fighters charity website and put it into the ‘find your nearest bank’ and it would tell you.
Rebecca: You guys you’re at the other end. People come to a bank, they donate their clothes. Talk me through how you’re involved from that moment onwards and what exactly happens from there.
Owen: So when the member of general public donates the clothing slash shoes to the textile bank, the textile bank will fill up and we have scheduled routes which we are pretty good getting there before it’s full. I’ve actually recently trialled sensors, so there’s a fill level sensor so when it hits the level then we go and collect from it. So we’re trialling that at the moment. That’s just to make sure that nothing overflows those. What happens after they’ve been collected as they come back here to our yard? They get emptied off into a big metal cage, weighed and then go into the start of our auditing process and that’s just basically all bags bust open, pushed up a conveyer system and graded by each individual.
Rebecca: Would you say a lot of the clothing doesn’t necessarily need to be in pristine condition?
Owen: It doesn’t need to be. It can be pre-loved. As long as there’s life left in the garment then we we can work with it. Obviously the better quality is a bit better but we can deal with the good and the bad as long as it’s not totally spoiled and ruined that is paint stains and soiled and some kind of chemicals – quite the obvious things that you look at that and think oh that’s ready for the bin.
What can be donated to Fire Fighters Charity’s recycling banks?
Rebecca: We do get asked quite a lot the kinds of things that people can donate, are there any examples of the kind of thing you see quite regularly that are really handy?
Owen: To donate – dresses, women’s clothing, men’s clothing, kids clothing and shoes, handbags… Anything that’s in your wardrobe you don’t want anymore and you think there’s life in it left, then donate it to the yellow bins.
Rebecca: Amazing. And once it’s gone through the sorting and everything, where will this clothing end up?
Owen: From there, going up a sorting line we have pickers that grade it into the end market so the more heavier items they’re coming off initially and they’re going to Eastern Europe, some to Pakistan and our main market is Africa.
Rebecca: So not only is it supporting our charity, but it’s obviously massively helping clothing not to get to landfill?
Owen: It’s also driving economy in these third world countries because it’s a big player for them over there. It’s what’s one of the main businesses.
Rebecca: Fantastic. It’s absolutely brilliant the advantages it’s got then. It’s obviously a huge income generator for the charity and every pound that is raised through recycling does help fire service personnel right across the UK, is that important to you as a company and your individual employees as well, knowing that they are making that massive difference to our fire family.
Owen: Yeah massively. The drivers that go out and collect from the stations are on kind of fire name terms with the firefighters and stuff like that. So now they’re proud to do what they’re doing and I’m immensely proud of it and we enjoy sometimes sponsoring events and things like that as well. We triangle above and beyond a call of duty there because the charity is that special.
Support our 2025 Bag it and Bank it campaign
Rebecca: It’s very timely because we’ve got our January campaign Bag it Bank it, which encourages communities right across the UK – so not just Scotland but all over the UK – to recycle as much as they can and then, depending on the fire station, we will have a winner in England, in Wales and in Scotland. Is that something you’d encourage people to really get behind? Obviously having seen the difference that the unwanted clothing can make down the line.
Owen: Definitely. January is always the time to clear out. So it’s taking that opportunity when everyone’s already clearing out. Come to the charity’s banks.
Rebecca: Do you see a big increase in donations in January?
Owen: Yeah, January we’re always 20 to 40% up in the stations.
Rebecca: That’s what we want to see. but it does carry on beyond January. Obviously we always do this massive push then. But again, would you encourage people to donate year round? You never know when you might have excess clothing.
Owen: Yeah, continuously. It’s not just January so we’re continuously servicing these, the textile banks and whenever there’s a time for a clear out, that’s the time to bring it to the bank.
Rebecca: You can also find details of our recycling campaign as well as a link to our map to find your nearest bank in the show notes, just head to the episode page on your podcast platform.
Meet Sherine Wheeler, Chief Executive of Fire Fighters Charity
And finally in this episode I chat with our Chief Executive, Sherine Wheeler, about her own perspective on the challenges facing the health and wellbeing of our fire services community and how we can help. Sherine also shares a little about her own aspirations for 2025 and her thoughts on setting New Year’s Resolutions.
Rebecca: So, hi Sherine, thank you for joining us. you’ve been in the role of Chief Executive for Fire Fighters Charity now for almost eight months. How’s it going and are you enjoying it so far?
Sherine: Yeah, it’s been brilliant. Thanks Becca. It’s hard to believe it’s been eight months already. Actually. Sometimes it feels like it’s been quite a bit longer and other times it feels like, no time at all. No, it’s been wonderful. I think, I said this in kind of the early weeks when I first joined and I think it’s truer and truer. the more I get to know everybody. But I couldn’t have walked into an organisation with a nicer workforce. I mean, our staff are seriously talented, seriously committed and just really lovely people. And I think that really comes across, to our service users, to our partners and it certainly makes me feel really privileged. So everything is going great. But most of all I’m just so proud of our staff and volunteers and yeah, it just feels like a brilliant team to be a part of.
Rebecca: That’s lovely, thank you. You’ve spent a lot of time, just in the few short months you’ve been here with individual fire and rescue services, has it highlighted the importance of our support and also of continuing to strength those relationships with them going forwards?
Sherine: Yeah, actually, and I think there’s probably kind of three parts to my response to this. The first thing is, ever since I joined, you know, almost at a frequency of once a week, I’ve met somebody who’s told me that the charity has saved their life and, you know, that’s hugely compelling and important. and I think that the charity does do work that is the difference between darkness and light and despair and hope.
What has come across from my conversations with fire and rescue services across the UK is I think we need to do a lot more to raise awareness of the help that we can offer. I think that we have to be accountable for that. I know, I think that we do a smashing job of service delivery and fundraising and raising awareness and they’re amazing partners for us in that respect. But I think there’s a lot more we could do to help people understand all the various ways that we could be providing them with care and support, you know, and their families. so I think that’s something that’s come across.
I think the other thing I would say, the last part of this response, to your question, is we are in a really unique position if you think about it, because we are independent of fire services, and we have this confidential, trusted, non-judgmental relationship with fire service personnel and former personnel and all of our other eligible beneficiaries. And I think what we see in terms of their health and wellbeing, what we know and understand about, you know, what the unique challenges they face, those things mean that we’re in a unique position to express a view about how to improve the health and well being of fire and rescue service personnel. I’d really like us to kind of use an evidence led way of talking about those things.
Wellbeing is personal, it’s subjective, and fire and rescue services do a lot to support people with their wellbeing, but there are so many things that impact how somebody feels. I think we are in a unique position to inform what services do to support people with their wellbeing.
Key health and wellbeing challenges in the fire service
Rebecca: And it kind of leads me on to the next question, actually. it’s probably a difficult one to answer in some ways, but do you think there are some key challenges facing the health and wellbeing of our fire services community at the moment? Obviously we touched on the fact that we’re in quite a unique position to help with those. But if there were any in particular that you’d highlight?
Sherine: Yeah, I think. Well, obviously I think the first thing is, this point about culture. If you work in an organisation or for an employer or in an environment where you feel valued and accepted and respected for exactly who you are, then you’re going to find it more possible to feel well in yourself doing that job. So culture has a direct relationship with wellbeing, actually, and we have a unique understanding of how culture influences wellbeing and how to support employers with that. So I think that is one of the challenges that’s facing, the health and wellbebeing of a fire services community in certain areas. And that’s okay.
How fire services are changing and evolving
I think there’s a second thing which is about, some of the, I guess, kind of strategic themes in fire and some of the ways that the work of being in the fire service is changing and evolving. Some of that has to do with climate, things like flooding, things like, you know, wildfires. but some of that also has to do with kind of like new energy sources and things that, you know, fires are coming about in different ways than these used to. And we’ve got the know, kind of obvious issues, around structure fires and contaminants and how those impact on firefighter wellbeing as well. So I think there are a few things going on, fire service always interesting and I think this is a really fascinating strategic moment in the sector as well. but, you know, our fire and rescue services across the UK do an outstanding job and I think we all have a role to play in understanding and valuing and recognising their contribution to society, actually.
Rebecca: Brilliant, thank you. You’ve probably touched on a couple there actually. But I was just going to ask if there’s any particular services and support that we’re developing in 2025 that you might be able to touch on.
Sherine: Yeah, so I think one of the things that’s really useful probably to highlight is we want to scale our service offering. We are receiving more demand then we can rise to need at the moment. And we are seeing that the complexity of need is evolving. So what we need to do is find a way to scale our services without spending much more money, and without compromising the quality of what we deliver, which has been rated outstanding and which we’re hugely proud of. So I think we need to think about how we offer some of the things that we offer increasingly through digital means, for those to whom that would be appropriate so that we can reach more people, and we need to kind of do that really well, in an impact-led way.
But I also think that we have some areas of our work where we could be a little bit more effective and efficient in terms of reducing wait times and making sure that people are receiving that holistic person’s centred model of care every time. So the upshot of that is we’re doing an amazing job. We couldn’t be prouder, but we need to do more of that amazing job for more people in ways that are most relevant and accessible for them. And that’s what our focus is going to be in 2025.
Rebecca: I think that’s fantastic, particularly reaching people that we might not have reached before. It’s brilliant that we’re using those digital technologies in that way. what would your message be to someone listening to this who maybe isn’t familiar with everything we do, all the different programmes, the different support that we offer.
Sherine: Well, in a nutshell I would say we are a charitable provider of health and wellbeing and we’re really, really good at that. And what sets us apart is we are offering a range of services that are confidential, that are free of judgement and that are independent of any fire and rescue service. Those things are really important to remember because I hope what that message will do is remove any barriers to access.
We understand the fire services community, in a way that other health and wellbeing providers cannot and do not, that’s what I believe. And we are massive champions of everybody in the fire and rescue services community. So if you’re listening to this and you’re not familiar with everything that we do or you don’t know whether you should reach out to us, I would encourage you to.
We can provide you with clinical care, both psychological and physical, we can provide you with wellbeing support you and your family and your loved ones. We can provide you with practical support including with welfare and we provide a range of information and advice so that you can self direct your access to health and wellbeing information. So please reach out to us. We’re lovely bunch of people and we are all about you.
Sherine’s personal take on New Year’s Resolutions
Rebecca: I was just going to finally touch on New Year’s Resolutions. I know I really struggle to set them and particularly to stick with them. I was going to ask you, are you a fan of making them at all? And do you usually try?
Sherine: See I am absolutely hopeless at New Year’s Resolutions. No. You know what I always said, I always tried to make resolutions when I was younger and I always epically failed. And then I kind of felt terrible about the fact that I didn’t meet my goal. And I don’t know if this is helpful to anyone. but what I have found helpful is rather than kind of setting out these kind of like lofty goals for myself that either I fail or succeed in, I try and figure out what is, you know, kind of what is the thing that I’m hoping to achieve.
And then on a day to day, I kind of just ask myself, when I’m faced with the choice, is this thing going to take me closer to my goal or further away from my goal? And hopefully more of the time I’m choosing, I’m making a choice that’s making me, you know, approximate my goal. And I just find that that approach is a bit kinder to myself and just me in the right direction. More so. So no, I haven’t got a year’s resolution. And you know, good luck to everyone who does so.
Rebecca: Absolutely. Thank you very much, Sherine That’s brilliant.
Rebecca: That’s it for this episode. Our thanks to Sam, Owen and Sherine.
Remember, if any of their experiences resonated with you. You can find out more about the support we offer and ways you can get involved in fundraising for us on our website. The links to that and all the information you need to contact our support line are in the Show Notes. And if you’ve got a story to share, we’d love to hear from you too. You can get in touch with Shout!Podcast through the contact links in the Show Notes.
So whether you’ve been supported by the charity or you supported us with some incredible fundraising, please get in touch to tell us about it. We’ve got another show coming up next month, so don’t forget to follow or subscribe and I’ll see you then. Take care.
