“We did really well, but it was awful.”
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That’s how Merimbula firefighter Vanessa Haigh described the recent Fire Fighter’s Climb for Motor Neurone Disease.
Ms Haigh was joined by three other Merimbula firefighters and one from Bega as they, along with almost 450 Fire and Rescue NSW firefighters raced up the 98 floors of Sydney Tower on October 23 wearing their full turnout kit – around 20kg worth.
“I’m glad we trained for it,” Ms Haigh said. “It started hurting pretty early on.”
But the team was able to push through with all four of them comfortably beating their goal time of under 20 minutes.
Ms Haigh took 16 minutes and 30 seconds to climb the 1504 steps, Ryan Marriott finished in 15.30, Bryan Motbey finished in 17.45 and Ken Brown finished in 17.30.
Despite the pain, Ms Haigh said it was all worth it because her team raised more than $15,000. Ms Haigh also had the seventh fastest woman’s time.
“Now I want to do it again next year and hope for a top three finish,” she said.
The four local firies had the early climb, all making it to the top before 10am, giving them time to get back down and “enjoy our first drink by 11.30am”.
The tower climb was in aid of MND research at Macquarie University. The overall goal of $500,000 has been reached but fundraising is ongoing.
Visit the website www.firiesclimbformnd.org.au for more details.