Fire Fighters swim marathon pays tribute to a fallen friend and colleague..

Express & Star

The David Lloyd pool in Brierley Hill has been hosting a mammoth long swim event raising money for the Fire Fighters Charity. It's all in tribute to a Fire Fighter that died while doing a charity event.

Transcript

00:00so we're here at david lloyd gym pool in broilie hill and um introduce yourself sir

00:05um so my name's jim mcparland um i'm a watch commander at the technical rescue unit

00:09where uh ian used to work so that's it yeah based in wensbury based yeah that's right and um i

00:16didn't realize there was a technical rescue unit there so there's one at bickenhill one at wensbury

00:20and one at sutton okay it's one unit spread across three stations yeah so ian was a colleague of

00:26yours um tragic thing happened he was doing a fundraising swim wasn't he that's right yeah

00:31yeah i've known ian since he joined the fire service over 20 years ago yeah and we ended up

00:36working together um he he was swimming the english channel for charity and unfortunately he went

00:43missing around the 19 mile mark um was found eight days later so john i've um i've broke your flow you

00:50were doing nicely there um you're a firefighter yourself aren't you i am yes i'm a firefighting

00:55tech rescue where you're based at based over at some coalfield okay yeah so yeah in the tru unit

01:00tru unit over there so yeah i dare say you don't know ian on a personal level wouldn't you yeah

01:06yeah i knew ian quite well he was a crew commander at the same station that i was at and by all accounts

01:10it sounds like he was a fully decent chap yeah worse can't describe it he's definitely he was an

01:16all-rounder yeah great everything he did fit strong really good at his job and also really

01:21likeable and he had a little bit of a cheeky side to him as well so he was loved by everybody really

01:24cool and uh you've been in how long how long have you been in the water so far um half an hour so

01:29far yeah and you've got another hour long to go another half hour so i'm just warming up

01:33and are you a regular swimmer i'll check it then yeah i do this about once a year

01:37that's a bunch of you more than i do yeah yeah yeah i was supposed to train for this but um yeah

01:43never got around to it things got in the way yeah yeah well you're doing well sir you're doing my warm-up

01:48my training and my wind down all in one so there we go must be very difficult for because you know

01:53firefighters it's it's not such a job he becomes a family doesn't it you know it's a very close-knit

01:58community absolutely it's like it is a second family yeah um being in the fire services and it was it was

02:03a massive shock to everyone yeah no one expected that not for me and everyone knew him you know

02:09everyone respected him everyone thought he was a machine how long had he been in the service roughly

02:13he'd been in about 22 years okay yeah yeah whereabouts was he from he lives in stour he lived

02:21in stourbridge so black country land yeah yeah yeah so you know he was around this local area so yeah

02:26and he was a member of this gym oh was he yeah that's why we're doing it oh okay okay we're both

02:31members we used to yeah we used to see each other here quite a bit yeah he was giving me swimming

02:35lessons you know no way yeah so yeah it must have been a tough gig at the station when you got the

02:41bad news and the worry before as well you know so you've decided to turn something to tragic into

02:47a positive thing so what's happening today so today it's we're doing a relay swim so for the 36 hours

02:53continually just the 36 just the 36 we're going to have swimmers rotating in every hour and swimming

02:59for an hour so we're going to go all three started at seven o'clock this morning uh and then we're

03:03going to finish at seven o'clock tomorrow evening so you've got your stint tomorrow haven't you i'm

03:08in tomorrow i'm going to do the last two hours yeah yeah so uh it's it's all about it's not so much

03:14about distance then it's about time isn't it the time in all honesty it's it's more about getting

03:20everyone together neil we've grabbed you as well are you are you getting along mate you're a firefighter

03:26as well yeah yeah where are you based at uh something called field okay yeah cool and how you

03:30finding it today with a swim good i've heard it's quite warm in the water isn't it it's not

03:35you're doing laps in your bath we've all been there well i won't keep you anymore sir so ladies

03:41you're taking part in this massive swim a fun um just introduce yourselves and who do you represent

03:46uh so i'm here cali martin um representing myself i am in training to do all's water end to end

03:54so we're jumping on board here for a great cause to get some lengths in and uh punish ourselves a

04:00little bit i believe and i'm sally and i'm training to swim the channel yeah for quite a few different

04:06charities as a relay cool so you're about to get in and do your leg aren't you and how long are you

04:12going to be in the water for then what's the plan i'm going to do 5k well how long will 5k take then

04:17what do you think hopefully under two hours yeah yeah and have you been in doing your bit yeah yeah

04:23i was in just uh it took me i did 5k and it took me just under two hours yeah yeah cool so you i've

04:30met you before at the town hall haven't i in starbridge didn't quite recognize you were you

04:35were you swimming out on and your goggles so how did you get involved in this thing where did you hear

04:39about it all i've seen it advertised and we're all part of the same group we've all got a whatsapp

04:44group all the friends do all the same triathlon oh okay what's the name of the triathlon group

04:50then give it a shout out is it is it is it printable cut well thank you for getting involved

04:58ladies thank you thank you i think the vast majority of people taking part in this knew ian personally

05:04and we're really good friends with him yeah so it's a good chance to to do you know something that he

05:10loved in a place where he used to go yeah in memory of him and to raise a lot of money for

05:15the charity that he was supporting well of course says it on the chest they're the firefighters charity

05:18so what do they do exactly is that looking after retired firefighters they look after there's uh it's

05:24set up to support firefighters and their families yeah whether they're serving or retired um so they

05:30have there's uh three rehab centers across the uk um two for dealing with physical injuries

05:35and for rehabilitation from those the other one is for mental health and well-being um so anything to

05:41you know that again any firefighter or any of their family uh are struggling with and need support with

05:47that's what the firefighter charity is for so where are you up to yet with the the amount you've raised

05:51so far do you know so far on this i think we're coming up to three thousand two hundred pounds

05:55cool now which is not bad considering it's on day one yeah so it's going really well and is this i mean

06:02this is lovely weather for sitting beside the pool on a lounge is this good weather for the swim or is

06:07it getting a bit hot in there i've been reliably informed by everyone because i haven't been in

06:12yeah yeah but it's very hot yeah i think the water temperature is about 30 degrees wow which is which

06:18is great for if you're sitting in the pool yeah just having a leisure there's some people are putting

06:22some big big distances in yeah there's people doing 5k 8k swims in one go which is it's quite a lot in

06:29temperature like that wow and if people want to kind of you know chuck it rattle the bucket chuck a

06:34few coins in how can they get hold here you you what's online and we're on just giving yeah um if

06:39anyone wants to search west midlands fire service uh and then the if you put that in the search engine

06:45the first um the first page that comes up is uh hughesies relay swim so all the details are on there

06:53great stuff well well done to all involved chap

06:55thanks

06:56thanks

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Transcript

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