William Bloodworth is no stranger to putting himself through pain to help others. As a career fire fighter at Nelson Station, he throws himself into tricky situations daily, but stepping forward to be on the Kiwi Firefighter Calendar was a different kind of discomfort for him. William shares with Nelson Weekly why he put his hand up to be the next Mr May.
Movember is all about raising funds for men’s mental health, as well as prostate and testicular cancer. It hits close to home for me, especially since I’ve lost some great mates in the brigade to both cancer and suicide.
When Movember started, I joined in with a laughable attempt at growing a ginger moustache—one that only shows up at a certain angle under perfect lighting. I asked friends and family to donate to this “spectacle,” and to my surprise, they did!
But eventually, I wanted to do more, so I started running a marathon every year. This turned into ‘The Amazing Chafe’, where firefighters (and their friends/families) would run from Rabbit Island to Sunday Hole. This year, we had runners from the Wakefield brigade all the way to the Blenheim brigade joining in on the fun.
Also, this year I decided to go a step further for the cause. I threw myself way out of my comfort zone and got involved in the new ‘Kiwi Firefighter Calendar’. The moment I said yes, I had a mini panic attack. What on earth had I gotten myself into?! I was seriously worried about embarrassing myself or letting the team down. So, I joined a gym ‘BFT’. The team was super supportive and kept everything hush-hush (only my wife knew).
A few days before the shoot, I got a spray tan—every ginger’s dream, right? (I definitely had a moment of panic about it going wrong, haha!) I even booked ‘leave’ from work to avoid the awkward questions about my sudden mid-winter bronze glow.
The shoot was a blast. A lot of the guys in it were people I used to work with back in Auckland and one thing we all have in common is we’re career firefighters, definitely not models. Trying to keep a straight face while your mates are joking around in the background? Pure gold.
Once the calendar dropped, I got some serious stick from my colleagues (and rightly so). The most common comment has been, “Oh, I didn’t recognise you with your shirt on!”
But all jokes aside, the calendar’s a fun way to support a really important cause. They’re $20 each. You can grab one online here, or pick one up at Ruby’s Café or Raglan Roast—just scan the QR code to pay. All profit goes to Movember.
