A firefighter climbing Yr Wyddfa in full kit for charity was given flack for skipping the massive queue on the summit of Wales' tallest peak. Teirnan Khoaz was raising money for mental health charities after they helped him when he suffered flashbacks of fatalities he'd seen when working on house fires and car crashes.
Queue criticism and support
The 27-year-old said the queues on the mountain had got so much worse since he used to climb the Eryri peak as a child and it felt like there were "queues from the bottom to the top". Teirnan had an oxygen tank on his back and was wearing full kit and a helmet so decided not to join the selfie line at the summit but got a bit of flack as he walked past the queue.
He said: "Somebody said under their breath as I went past them, 'Oh, entitled firefighter thinks he can skip the queue'. I sort of laughed at it in the moment, but because I got footage of it, I thought, you know what, I'll do a video of that and put it online. It's got a couple million views of people just kicking off."
Despite the criticism, Teirnan said there were plenty of people applauding and clapping as he went. He said: "Welsh people already have a reputation for being super kind, but the amount of people just literally handing cash to me as I was walking past them. I'm like, 'Do you want to know anything about the charity?' And they're like, 'No, don't be silly, just take the money!' So I think I raised £120, £130 just in cash that people handed to me. So it was a really, really good reception. The only thing was I was so out of breath I couldn't really stop and talk too much."
Mental health journey
Tiernan, from Sheffield, is taking on two mammoth challenges. First he cycled the length of the UK from John o' Groats to Land's End, and now he is taking on the three peaks. He has been a firefighter with South Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service for around six years. He said that it was "the best job in the world" but it could be traumatising.
He said: "I went to a series of jobs, where there was fatality after fatality in the space of a couple of weeks, just back-to-back. I went to one particularly gruesome one, and I'd come back off that shift, and I was going on holiday the very next day with a couple of mates. I remember I was just sitting a pub and like the faces of the people flashed up in front of me. I think in the movies it happens and the characters are like 'Oh my God!' and they look really stressed. I don't think anyone knew that I had that in that moment, because I didn't change on the outside at all. But I did think to myself, 'that was a bit strange.' Then when I got into bed that night, it happened again, and progressively it started happening more and more. I never woke up in sweats or anything, but I was just like 'I need to address this ASAP.'"
Tiernan got help through the The Fire Fighters Charity for counselling and therapy which helped him learn to manage it. He said: "It's always going to be there. It never goes, it's just you learn how to manage it properly. I am forever changed, I'm a different person now, but as long as you reach out and talk to people, it is the most important thing. If I'd have just reached out, I would have had so much more help and I wouldn't have had to fight that battle by myself. I am doing better, there's no denying I'm definitely doing better."
Wildfire appreciation and fundraising
Tiernan explained that people have been expressing gratitude following the series of wildfires across the UK. He said: "I don't think our country has ever seen anything like that. It's record-high wildfire amounts. I think the reason why I got such support on the mountain is because… I feel like the media hides a lot of the work that we do. You know when ever car crashes are happening, you always picture the police there and the ambulances, but you never really picture the fire service. I'm not saying we're unsung, we're definitely not, but it's like a lot of it isn't in the public eye constantly, whereas it is impossible to ignore how much we've been out. So I think people just had a different level of appreciation on that day, and I saw that through the donations."
The fundraiser has raised almost £7,000 online, not including the generous cash donations Tiernan has received in person. However, he'd like to raise more money for The Fire Fighters Charity ahead of climbing Scafell Pike and Ben Nevis over the next couple of weeks.
