Compton Country Fire Service (CFS) volunteers recently took a step up for the Melbourne Firefighter Stair Climb raising a personal record of over $19,000 to support cancer research and crisis support.

Eight volunteers joined around 700 other firefighters and emergency service personel from Australia and New Zealand to battle the 28 floors of the Crown Metropol in up to 25kg of turnout gear and breathing apparatus.

The local CFS brigade was the third largest contributor to this year’s beneficiaries Lifeline, Peter McCallum Cancer Foundation and 000Foundation with a current total of close to $640,000 raised by all volunteers.

Compton CFS volunteer Renee Ackerley said this year’s fundraising was an “amazing group effort”.

“The most that Compton had raised in the past I think was $10,000 and I thought we’ll just try and beat that and then it just got bigger and bigger,” he said.

“It’s character building for the individual participant as well as team building for the brigade and we get an opportunity to support the communities that support us with the fundraising side of it.

“Next year’s goal is to try and at least equal what we have done this year.

“You get to do like a boot camp weekend where you get to understand people’s strengths and weaknesses better so that when you’re volunteering on a job, you know the person better.

“You can support them or they can support you better because you just know their capabilities.

“In some ways when you think about it, it’s your mental challenge to get to yourself to the top which makes you think about other people’s mental challenges in life just to get to the end of the day.

“In some cases, it’s only between three and a half minutes to thirty minutes that you’re carrying that burden where people are carrying it all day every day.”

Compton CFS volunteer Chelsea Gordon said while the South East community has always been generous towards emergency services she feels they have stepped up their support since the Mount Gambier Centenary Tower fire in January 2020.

“We always got lots of good support but since the Centenary Tower fire, a lot of people realise some of the stuff we do,” she said.

“We do contribute a lot to the community and I think having a fire so close to the township really put into perspective some of the sacrifices that us volunteers make to keep everybody safe.

“I think since then Mount Gambier has really stepped it up with the supportiveness towards the volunteer services.

“On behalf of Compton, we would just like publicly thank all the businesses and individuals that contributed.”

Donations can still be made to www.firefighterclimb.org.au until October 10 by selecting the CSA CFS Compton and donating to the brigade or to an individual volunteer.