Firies Climb for MND is a charity that raises money for the Macquarie University Motor Neuron Disease Research Centre, which I think is a fantastic cause. NSW firefighter Matt Pridham founded Firies Climb in 2015 when his best mate was diagnosed with MND and so far, it has raised more than $3 million.
High hopes: Firefighter Gavin Clifton Gavin Clifton plans to climb Katoomba's Furber Steps for 24 hours straight in 2024 to support MND research.
The first fundraising event was a group of firies climbing the Sydney Tower in full firefighting kit, which weighs 20kg. It’s 1504 steps to the top, so it’s a decent climb. I’ve been a retained firefighter with the Wentworth Fire and Rescue brigade since 2016. I first signed up for the Tower Climb in 2018 because I’d never really been involved in anything for charity, and I wanted to do something good.
I did the climb twice, and I found it incredibly moving to meet the MND patients who were waving us off at the bottom and waiting to greet us at the top. They were so grateful that we were raising money for research. People with MND are doing it tough, so we should do it tough too, to help them.
The thing that has never left me is that the patients who were there to cheer us on in 2018 weren’t there the next year because they had passed away. MND is a terrible disease, and it doesn’t discriminate.
The 2020 Tower Climb couldn’t take place because of the pandemic, so the event went virtual, and people were climbing 1504 steps wherever they could.
It was just me that first year, going up and down the steps alone for three-and-a-half hours, but since then more and more people have joined me.
I’m a trail runner, and I love doing endurance events like 100km ultramarathons. I live in the Blue Mountains, so I’m always out in the national park. The Furber Steps go from Scenic World to Katoomba Falls, and they’re famous with trail runners, so it was the natural choice for me for the virtual event.
It was just me that first year, going up and down the steps alone for three-and-a-half hours, but since then more and more people have joined me. I felt compelled to create something that people would want to be part of, and it’s fantastic to see how it’s grown. This year, more than 160 people took part.
The event officially started at midnight on the Friday night and went until 4pm on the Saturday, but I did 16 hours last year, so I wanted to challenge myself and beat my personal best. Three mates and I started at 10pm on the Friday night and just kept going for 18 hours. Others came and went during the day, coming for five or six hours or their lunch breaks.
The four of us went up and down the steps 28 times. We were aiming for 33, but it was just so hot. We didn’t take breaks. We’d just stop for a couple of minutes at the top, hydrate, eat something, then go straight back down. We were tired at the end, but we found we’d hit our fourth or fifth wind. We looked at each other and said, “We could probably keep going!”
It worked out to 56 kilometres, so it’s like doing a marathon but doing it while climbing a mountain. It’s capital-L lunatic, but it’s what we do. Next year, want to do 24 hours straight.
You can still support Firies Climb for MND – Blue Mountains by donating online.
Learn more about the work of the Macquarie University Motor Neuron Disease Research Centre.
