MY son calls me a hero, but I just think of it as a really exciting part-time job that I love.

Coming from a family who predominantly work in the emergency services sector, writes Jon Griffiths, Aberystwyth retained firefighter, I always felt this pull towards working for a blue-light service, which is why I chose to become an on-call firefighter at Aberystwyth Fire Station.

By day I work at my café, Taste. By evening I box five times a week as an amateur boxer, and by night I am a husband, and father to my two sons.

All of which I am able to do while offering 100 per cent availability to the Fire Service, which means on average I am on-call 141 hours a week.

Fortunately for me, my café, home and boxing club are all within 10 minutes of the station, which puts me in the perfect position to go about my daily business.

For me, it is all about that thrill when my alerter goes off or the bell sounds in the station; no call out is the same, and every incident offers a new challenge.

Although it is an extremely demanding job, especially with a family and a busy life, it is all about finding the balance, and more importantly – feeling passionate about what I do.

Working at Aberystwyth Fire Station offers me huge potential and due to the operational capability based at the Station, we have the opportunity to learn a variety of rescue techniques, including Swift Water Rescue and Line Rescue.

This is on top of the invaluable skills I learn as a firefighter.

The skills that this job provides me with are transferable to all aspects of my life, and only helps to enhance my professional abilities, and ultimately, make me more employable.

I have only just completed my two-year probationary period and have yet to undergo Swift Water Rescue training, however I am very excited to do so.

The skills learned through this training will allow me to attend Water Rescue incidents.

While in my personal life these skills will help me to educate my sons on water safety, and in the event of an emergency in or around water, I will feel confident in my ability to assist the situation.

When it comes to working on the station, the sense of comradery that we all share is like no other, the only way I can describe it as being part of one big family; we support one another, we wind each other up, but at the end of the day we have one another’s backs no matter what.

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