Did you take part in a fundraising challenge in aid of us this year? Perhaps you helped to organise an event in your community? Or maybe you donated clothing to one of our recycling banks, donated your time as one of our dedicated volunteers, or stayed at one of our centres on a rental break?
Whatever it might be, we want to say a huge thank you to all of you – without this incredible support, we couldn’t continue to offer vital help to members of our fire services community, and their families.
Below, we celebrate just a few of the many highlights from across 2024:
Fundraising highlights
In March, friends and colleagues took part in a swimming fundraiser in memory of West Midlands firefighter Iain Hughes, who tragically died in 2023 while swimming the English Channel in aid of us and two other charities.
Just a month later, our amazing London Marathon took on the 26.2 miles through the streets of or capital city, raising more than £60,000 for us in the process. See the highlights here.
During the summer, the Woolridge family walked 110 miles as a tribute to their “heart hero” son, Callum, who underwent life-saving open heart surgery last year. Read their story here.
And several supporters ran the Rob Burrow Leeds Marathon. See some of the photos here.
The Fire Fighters Charity Golf Cup – which is organised each year by Fire Sport UK Golf Section – raised more than £19,000 for us in May, smashing all its previous records, while Keith Fire Station in Scotland organised an incredible golf day just a few months later, donating an incredible £15,000.
In September, Cheyenne Hirst and her partner Matt took on the Three Peaks in aid of us and two other charities, after their nephew was left with a serious brain injury and spent months in a coma following a horror car crash. Read about their story here.
Elsewhere, Hereford and Worcester colleagues once again teamed up to take on a walking fundraiser in memory of their friend and colleague, Stu Crebbin. See some of their highlights from the last year here.
Family and friends of Harrison Bretherton, who sadly died in a road traffic collision earlier this year, also organised a 22-mile run in his memory – and in aid of us. Read their story here.
And friends of a Norfolk on-call firefighter, Carl Mills, raised an incredible £26,000 with a football match in his memory.
We also saw some fantastic fundraisers take on the 2024 British Firefighter Challenge, as well as the London Landmarks Half Marathon and the Great North Run.
Every year, we see supporters pull out all the stops after being helped by selfless fire crews across the UK, and this year, a South Yorkshire community organised an epic bike ride after their local crew saved a family from a house fire. Read their story here.
Several Fire and Rescue Services went the extra mile for us in 2024, including Staffordshire which is marking its 50th anniversary with a number of events in aid of us, and Norfolk which organised a day full of Car Washes right across the service.
Meanwhile, we had some superstar individuals going the extra mile, including Hannah Mays, who is a wholetime and on-call firefighter with West Sussex, who joined her dad and brother to climb Snowdon every month for the year. Read their story here.
There were so many more fantastic achievements this year, far too many to list, so thank you to each and every one of you who organised or took part in a fundraiser for us.
Recycling:
Thanks to your clothing donations this year, we raised over £100,000 in January alone – another record-breaking success in our Bag it and Bank it campaign.
You helped us collect more than 480 tonnes of clothing throughout the month from recycling banks across the UK, not only helping to divert it away from landfill, but also raising funds to support our vital work.
Since then, it’s taken our 2024 total to around £650,000 generated from clothes recycling – an incredible result.
You can see our Bag it and Bank it 2024 champions here, and get involved in recycling by clicking here.
Income Lottery, Raffle and Appeals:
We started 2024 with a Thanking Campaign, with more than 10,000 people contacted with a thank you for their support of our charity.
We’ve run two appeals this year, one focused on our fantastic Nursing Team at Jubilee House and the services they offer, with more than £13,000 donated, and more recently, one focused on our Welfare Services Team. You can find out about that one here.
Our Christmas Raffle also recently closed, having raised almost £45,000.
And our Lottery Super Draw in April led to £48,892.96 raised, including one-off donations.
Our regular donors’ income has hit more than £1.6million since January 2024, while one-off donations came to almost £215,000.
Corporate partnerships and donations:
We’ve had support from some incredible corporate supporters and partners this year, with partnerships agreed with huge names like Tuffking, Frequentis and Polygon in 2025, as well as donations and support from many more.
We were delighted to be named charity of the year by FireAngel, Frequentis and Brooklin Claims, as well as receiving incredible support once again from Autoglym.
Elsewhere, Aico employees kindly volunteered their time at our centre, Elvis & Kresseonce again donated 50% of the profits from their fire hose range to us – an incredibly generous donation – while Tuffking sponosred one of our programmes as part of a new and exciting partnership.
More corporates supporting us this year included: 3tc Software, Motorola Solutions, NEC Software Solutions, Panasonic, AVR Group, Telent and Saab, plus more.
Thank you to all of them.
Legacies and Trusts:
And we want to say a huge thank you to all the Trusts who have kindly supported us in 2024, as well as the individuals who chose to leave a gift in their will.
Here are a few snapshot stats since January:
- £210,000 donated from Trusts
- £1.8million in legacy notifications
- £1.84million donated from legacies.