Marco and James met on our Firefighter apprenticeship programme and immediately clicked due to their shared passion for exercise, the outdoors, and adventure. It was at Fire Service College, Moreton in Marsh, where they started considering potential fundraising ideas. Ideas that would enable them to quench their thirst for adventure while providing an opportunity to raise funds for charities close to their hearts:
- The Fire Fighters Charity
- The Curtis Palmer Program
- Hope for Children
Why these charities?
The Firefighter Charity is the focal point of their fundraising efforts. The charity supports the whole of the fire service community, delivering mental health, physical health, and social wellbeing services throughout the UK.
West Ashland Firefighter, James, currently volunteers for the charity Curtis Palmer Program which helps serving and retired emergency service personnel with physical injury, illness, and mental health wellbeing.
Marco, Firefighter at Broughton, is currently training for the Marathon Des Sables to raise funds to support the fantastic work of Hope for Children – A charity that supports some of the world’s worst affected children living in poverty with access to education, healthcare, and child right projects.
Marco shares more about how they came up with project Alpha One:
What is project Alpha One?
“After bouncing a few ideas back and forth we decided that we should visit the birthplace of endurance running, Athens. The stage of the first ever marathon. However, subject to our new roles within the service it seemed only apt that we take on this challenge wearing firefighting leggings, carrying a rolled-up length of hose.
Once settled on this idea our minds started to wander a little. Could this be the start of something bigger? A way of supporting our community on a regular basis. A project? Project Alpha One was born.“
The challenge.
The Athens Marathon is like no other on Earth. According to legend, it covers the same ground that the Athenian messenger Pheidippides ran when he brought news of victory from the battlefield of Marathon 2,500 years ago. The entire course is run on asphalt. The first 12km are level. The middle 19km are gentle long hills. The final 11km are downhill.
The brave duo will be running the race on the 13th November. Start time 9:00AM
We wish them all the luck!
If you would like to support Marco and James you can visit their just giving page Crowdfunding to Run the Greek Marathon (13th Nov) in Firefighting kit, carrying a 25m length of hose, raising money for some important charities. on JustGiving
