It took exactly 15 minutes and 57 seconds in full breathing apparatus for Rosie Holland to climb the 1,103 steps in the Firefighter Sky Tower Challenge on Saturday and every step was worth it for the $11,064 she raised for blood cancer.
That is more than double her $5,000 goal for the annual fundraiser and more than five times her efforts last year.
The Wakefield Volunteer Fire Brigade firefighter says she put another call out to the community once her fundraising neared $10,000 and the money kept coming in.
“I felt like everybody was on board to get me over that $10,000. People came out of the woodwork from nowhere – people were amazing.
“It feels like a huge family of people gathered for the right reasons.”
On the day, it was inevitably hot and tough, especially breathing through a mask.
“You’re against time in terms of how much air you have available and your heart rate is about 20 beats per minute faster than if you don’t have the apparatus.
“It’s hotter and a little bit more claustrophobic!”
Rosie also shaved close to three minutes off her time from last year, despite not feeling flash on the day and experiencing a bit of vertigo which she says may have been due to a cold coming on.
Six volunteer firefighters from Brightwater also took on the Sky Tower Challenge in Auckland, raising more than $14,000, while another six from Richmond raised more than $16,000.
Altogether, firefighters around the country raised nearly $2.5 million for Kiwis living with blood cancer through the annual climb of Auckland’s Sky Tower.
