A pair of Suffolk firefighters will be running the Cambridge half marathon wearing full equipment to raise money for two charities close to their hearts.
Joe Charles and Luke White-Miller are on-call firefighters at the Mildenhall fire station who are hoping to raise at least £1,100 for the Fire Fighters charity and Kidney Research.
The Fire Fighters Charity helps provide confidential support to the whole of the fire services community, while Kidney Research hopes to prevent kidney disease from existing in the future - a topic that is close to home for Joe.
Joe's wife Lynn has received two kidney transplants from family members and underwent dialysis for two different lengthy periods of time.
Lynn received her latest kidney transplant from her brother in January 2019.
Joe said he wanted to do "anything" he could to help anybody in the future who goes through what his family has been through.
"It was tough on her, she was still working full time," he said, recalling when Lynn's kidney first began failing. "I was still working full time. Obviously we've got a family as well.
"So it was trying to juggle everything and stay as positive as we could."
Lynn was on dialysis until she was able to receive a transplant from her mother. Though that kidney eventually began to fail and she had to go one dialysis again before getting a transplant from her brother.
Joe added: "You think everything's back to normal and all of a sudden it starts to fail, that's sort of the worst news."
Though now she is in good health and Joe and Luke are hoping to raise as much as they can while running with their breathing apparatus on.
Luke recently ran the London Marathon, raising £3,476.80 for Skcin, who raise awareness about sun safety to prevent skin cancer, a charity he chose after a melanoma diagnosis within the family.
The donations raised from the half marathon will be split 50/50 with the Fire Fighters charity and Kidney Research.
If you would like to support the firefighters' fundraiser, visit: uk.virginmoneygiving.com/Team/JoeandLuke.
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