Mayor, councillors step up to help charity (+ video)

Cr Mike Lord (left), Dunedin Mayor Dave Cull and Cr Andrew Noone (behind) race up the stairs of the Municipal Chambers, followed by firefighters, yesterday. Photo by Stephen Jaquiery.
Cr Mike Lord (left), Dunedin Mayor Dave Cull and Cr Andrew Noone (behind) race up the stairs of the Municipal Chambers, followed by firefighters, yesterday. Photo by Stephen Jaquiery.
Dunedin Mayor Dave Cull did his part for charity by helping train rural firefighters for the Firefighter Sky Tower Stair Challenge yesterday.

The challenge involves firefighters running up 1103 stairs and 51 floors in full kit to raise money for Leukaemia and Blood Cancer New Zealand, in Auckland on May 28.

It was not the Sky Tower but Mr Cull donned the full kit and took to the Municipal Chambers stairs alongside councillors Neville Peat, Andrew Noone, Mike Lord and eight firefighters from around the region in a relay challenge.

Two hundred dollars was raised.

Mr Cull was not nervous about the ascent beforehand despite never having done anything like it before.

"It's the [tank] on your back that kills you,'' he said, afterwards.

Cr Peat said he would be "crawling'' if he had to do the real thing but enjoyed the challenge.

Firefighters from the Otago Rural Fire Authority, Middlemarch, Dunedin Airport and Macraes fire service participated yesterday.

A team of four rural firefighters led by Kakanui rural firefighter Meagan Bell will participate in the Auckland challenge.

They had been training on stairs around the region and were aiming to beat their time from last year of 22min 51sec. She was "fairly confident'' they could beat it.

"It's exciting but it's really stressful at the same time,'' Miss Bell said. "It gets quite hectic.''

The fundraiser was a great social occasion, too.

"Everyone just gets along and you meet new people and it's just awesome,'' she said.

Otago Rural Fire Authority principal rural fire officer Dr Stephanie Rotarangi said the council event was "a bit of fun'' to try to raise the profile of the event.

rhys.chamberlain@odt.co.nz

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