Country Fire Authority members have stepped up in the name of mental health awareness during the last month, helping to raise more than $200,000 for mental health charities.
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While the annual Melbourne Firefighter Stair Climb is normally hosted at Crown Metropol, this year it took place virtually - with participants climbing stairs from "R U OK" day on September 10 through to World Mental Health day on October 10, with a collective aim to clock up one million steps for mental health.
Chris Sharam, from Ballarat Fire Brigade, was one of the firefighters who took part this year.
He, like other participating firefighters in the region, are essential workers in their day jobs.
He said this made it a bit more of a challenge to fit in the 3046 steps - the number of Australians who died by suicide in 2018 - throughout the month.
"It was a challenge to be able to put time aside to get out there and climb the stairs," he said, though he added that all of the firefighters he knows who took part from this region were still able to exceed the goal number of steps.
While raising funds online, he completed most of his steps outdoors - at Black Hill, at his workplace and out at Buninyong.
By putting time aside to complete the steps throughout the month, he said this meant the challenge not only served to raise awareness of mental health issues such as post traumatic stress and depression in the community, but actually benefited the mental health of participants during the lockdown too.
"It really helped me to get up and get out of the house and go and do some exercise," Mr Sharam said, with eased restrictions allowing participants to start to complete the challenge in pairs and more recently in slightly larger groups.
Acting Chief Officer, Garry Cook, reiterated this, saying it had been an "incredibly tough year for everyone" but the stair climb provided friendly competition with the health benefit of exercise, all while raising funds for mental health.
CFA is proud to have our members take part in this challenge to support mental health charities in their important work.
- Acting Chief Officer Garry Cook
"CFA is proud to have our members take part in this challenge to support mental health charities in their important work," ACO Cook said.
He said CFA embraced this year's challenge - achieving more than 3.7 million of the collective 4.5 million steps clocked by participants from all fire agencies during the month.
The seventh year of the challenge, it was also the first time the challenge was open to friends and family to participate.
"I'd like to congratulate participants from all the firefighting agencies that take part, but particularly the 355 firefighters, friends, and family members who stepped up for CFA," he said.
This year's tally is still being counted, but so far it has surpassed more than $214,000.
The funds raised are shared between Lifeline, the Black Dog Institute and the 000 Foundation, to help them provide mental health support to the community.
This year's fundraising adds to the more than $2.4 million that has been raised for a variety of charities since the first stair climb in 2014.
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