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Four energetic members of the Howick Volunteer Fire Brigade will this Saturday get into their gear and climb up 51 floors of the Sky Tower building in Auckland’s CBD.
James Mason, Gordon Symons, Chloe Mackey and Darren Stuck are taking part in the annual Firefighter Sky Tower Challenge on May 24, which will see them tackle the inside of New Zealand’s tallest building to raise money for Leukaemia and Blood Cancer NZ.
As part of their fundraising efforts they ran a sausage sizzle at Bunnings Botany and have collected donations at Howick Village’s busy Saturday market.
As of May 21, they’d raised an impressive $10,669.
“We’ve had heaps of donations today, upward of a couple of hundred dollars,” brigade captain James Mason told the Times during the recent sausage sizzle.
“New World Howick has donated $3000, Hell Pizza Botany donated $50 of vouchers, and Subway Howick donated over $100 in vouchers.
“Four Square Cockle Bay donated all the supplies we’re using for today’s barbecue.
“We’ve also been going out into the community to collect donations with the red buckets.”
While they’ve been working hard to raise money to support Leukaemia and Blood Cancer NZ, Mason, Symons, Mackey and Stuck have also been preparing their bodies for the gruelling challenge they’ll face on May 24.
They’ve been running up the infamous stairs at Eastern Beach and planned to tackle another location in Clevedon.
“It’s a walk and it’s just shy of 1000 stairs,” Stuck says.
“I also use the StairMaster at Jetts gym and we climb general stairs around the community.”
Mason says they trained on the Eastern Beach stairs while wearing their firefighting gear, which weighs 25kg.
“Those stairs are better than the Sky Tower stairs,” he jokes.
“We’ve been doing general fitness training every Monday and we’re doing recruitment for people to join our brigade, alongside fire safety awareness and fundraising.
“We have also been doing runs in weighted vests that are about 20kg.
“Basically, we’re pushing our bodies to the limit, so it makes the day easier.”
When the Times spoke to the volunteer firefighters about their preparation for the Sky Tower Challenge last year, Mason said they’ll have to run up 1103 steps over 51 floors.
“Once you reach a certain floor the heat gets to you and you just have to push through.
“It’s always about the fifth floor. I get to the fifth floor and I’m like, ‘Why am I doing this again?’.”
Their motivation for taking part in the challenge is simply to help people.
“I just enjoy being a part of such a big community,” he says.
“You’ve got hundreds of firefighters throwing themselves at this and it becomes a fun challenge against each other. We’re always upping ourselves to try to beat each other.”
Symons said apart from giving back to the community and raising the funds, he’s lost family members to cancer so the cause is also personal.
“I’ve had melanoma, which I’m clean of, so I climb for myself too. Each person has their own reasons. It’s awful during it but afterward it’s great.”
The organisers say the money raised goes toward Leukaemia and Blood Cancer NZ which “provides essential support for patients and their families, as well as funding research into blood cancer and raising awareness and advocating for patients”.
People can donate to the Howick Volunteer Fire Brigade’s fundraising efforts online at www.firefighterschallenge.org.nz.
