Sky Tower Challenge participants Danni, Chris and Alex (photo by Scooter McCann).
This year’s Helensville Volunteer Fire Brigade representatives in Leukaemia & Blood Cancer New Zealand’s Firefighter Sky Tower Stair Challenge, now in its 13th year, were team captain Chris Macdonald and Alex van Dam, who have taken part before, and first-timer Danni Sorby.
Danni explains he decided to take part in the gruelling event – climbing the Sky Tower’s 1103 stairs at speed in full fire-fighting kit, including boots, helmet and breathing apparatus - because he and many others he knows have lost people to cancer, and because he loves the physical challenge and the competition. Ex-Royal Navy Clearance Diver and now working as a dive team supervisor in Auckland, Danni says that while getting yourself up 52 floors was painful – your quads burn and your knees turn to jelly - it was really worth doing, because the Helensville community was very supportive, with generous donations from family, friends and many local businesses, and because it was a very satisfying personal achievement.
With 900 national and international firefighters in the event the 2017 fundraising target of $900,000 was exceeded, with participants collectively raising a whopping $1,256,059.7 for the charity.
