Firefighters attached to Fire and Rescue NSW Taree will take part in the annual Climb for MND in October this year.
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Monique Shoesmith, Tayla Battle, Peter Ince and Nathan Cooke will be tasked with climbing the 1504 stairs (or 98 storeys) of Sydney Tower while wearing 25 kilograms of firefighting gear.
Tayla said participants will have special inspiration on each floor of the tower.
“Each floor is dedicated to patients who have passed or are fighting the disease,” Tayla said.
All funds raised from the event will be used in motor neurone disease (MND) research at Macquarie University, the largest centre of its kind in Australia.
The Taree contingent’s fundraising efforts kicked off a few weeks ago as Monique and Taree Fire Station Commander Peter Willard collected donations at Taree Central shopping centre. They raised about $400.
The station will hold other fundraisers in the lead up to the climb including a doughnut drive. Contact Monique on 0400 390 500 to place an order.
Further information on the drive and forthcoming fundraisers will be posted on the station’s Facebook page.
Donations can also be made at https://firiesclimbformnd.gofundraise.com.au/page/TAREE453.
Each floor is dedicated to patients who have passed or are fighting the disease
- Tayla Battle, Taree firefighter
More than 500 firefighters from Fire and Rescue and Rural Fire Service are expected to take part in the climb.
At the end of the climb, awards will be handed out to the highest fundraising team and best individual fundraiser as well as the fastest team, individual, person aged more than 45 and person wearing structural firefighting boots.
Participants will certainly have to show some pace to take the fastest time, with last year’s quickest completing the climb in 10 minutes and 14 seconds.
More than $1.3 million has been raised through the event since its inception in 2015.
For more information on the climb, visit www.firiesclimbformnd.org.au.
Macquarie University states motor neurone disease is highly unpredictable.
Ten per cent of patients contract the disease due to inheriting a defective gene while 90 per cent of patients have sporadic MND without a known cause.