OUR Firefighters have again done us proud, with a successful completion of the Motor Neurone Disease (MND) Stair Climb for all nine members of the RFS Lower Hunter Stair Climb Team, a combined team of Medowie and East Maitland RFS firefighters.

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1,504 stairs, 98 levels, wearing 25 kilos of firefighting equipment, and they did it.

Medowie had the youngest climber on the day, with 15-year-old Medowie RFS Member Aaron Lindsay making the climb successfully.

Aaron chose to join cadets originally, before becoming a member of Medowie RFS.

He currently cannot attend incidents until he turns 16, but is an active member along with his sister.

Aaron participates in community engagement, attends the Station on Saturday mornings and is really looking forward to when he can start going to fire calls after he turns 16 in December this year.

Impressively, he already has his bush firefighter qualifications and is ready to go.

Medowie’s own Darryl Luck completed the climb in a personal best of 16:52, carrying with him a photo of Medowie father Brenton Teasdale.

Brenton lost his battle with Motor Neurone Disease, one year ago this week.

The connection with Brenton and the Medowie RFS was a short encounter that happened during the April super storm that hit Medowie a couple of years back.

During the blackout the RFS received a call to assist a family, Brenton’s wife Tina needed help with moving Brenton.

It was a job that took all of 10 minutes, but Darryl relayed the story to News Of The Area and said it affected all of the RFS members in the truck.

Darryl said, “There are so many people in town with stories and battles you just don’t know about.”

“The encounter with Tina and Brenton was a job that has always stayed with me.”

“I’d noticed they had moved and suspected that Brenton had lost his battle with MND, so I made contact with the family through a post on the brigade page as taking Brenton with me to the top was a way of recognising the entire family’s battle and loss with MND,” he said.

MND is the name given to a group of diseases in which the nerve cells (neurons) controlling the muscles that enable us to move, speak, breathe and swallow, undergo degeneration and die.

A person’s senses and intellect are not affected, and there is no known treatment or cure.

Each day, in Australia, more than two people die from MND and each day more than two people are diagnosed with MND.

All funds raised by our wonderful firies will go towards research into this awful disease.

The RFS Lower Hunter Stair Climb Team raised nearly $9500 with more to bank, so are hoping to go over the $10,000 mark.

Congratulations to our dedicated firies for all they do for others.

By Rachael VAUGHAN