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Firefighter takes the stairs: Xavier Reilly steps up for mental health and cancer support
“Step up or shut up” was Murchison firefighter Xavier Reilly’s motto when he decided to sign up for the Melbourne Firefighter Stair Climb this year.
Having joined the CFA at just 16, it wasn’t long before Mr Reilly’s idealistic concept of his new career was met with the harsh realities of his profession.
Shortly after his 18th birthday, he was called out to his first vehicle fatality.
Fifteen years later, he still can’t shake the image of that fateful scene.
“I still have trauma from that,” Mr Reilly said.
“I remember it vividly, I could tell you all the details perfectly.”
He said this, along with multiple other accidents he had responded to of a similar nature, sent him down a dark path into depression.
More recently, in 2019, he was fighting the bushfires in Gippsland alongside his father.
During this experience, Mr Reilly recalled two separate times amid the flames and chaos when he was sure he was going to die.
“A lot of people in emergency services get exposed to that sort of thing, and it has long-term effects on you,” he said.
“It’s all just about trying to help build a better tomorrow and trying to guide new people so they hopefully don’t have to go through the same thing, or if they do, they’re better equipped to deal with it.”
Drawing from his personal experiences and his own mental health journey, as well as witnessing others who have faced similar challenges and battled cancer, Mr Reilly will undertake a stair climb in September to raise funds for the cause.
The Melbourne Firefighter Stair Climb is going into its 10th year, with the aim of raising $700,000 to support Lifeline, the Peter MacCallum Cancer Foundation and the 000 Foundation.
These funds will be dedicated to enhancing support services, funding research, eliminating stigmas and raising awareness for mental health issues such as depression, suicide and post-traumatic stress injury, particularly among emergency service workers.
The event has raised almost $3.5 million since 2014.
Mr Reilly will be one of the 600 firefighters and emergency service personnel who will start at street level and climb to the finish line on the 28th floor of the Crown Metropol hotel in Melbourne on September 2.
The racers will be kitted out in full firefighter gear, including full structural firefighting protective clothing, and wearing a self-contained breathing apparatus, simulating the actions of a firefighter entering a burning high-rise building.
Mr Reilly has been doing his best to train, stuffing a hiking backpack full of extra weight and attempting to lug it up stairs as practice.
After six weeks of waiting, his suit has recently arrived, so he can now more closely recreate the real thing.
For Mr Reilly, it’s not about winning the competition, but showing his friends and family he’s committed to changing the stigma around mental health and cancer diagnosis, as well as hopefully making things easier for a young person starting a career as an emergency service responder.
You can support the cause and Murchison native Xavier Reilly at https://www.firefighterclimb.org.au/climber/xavierreilly/