Last weekend, four Lake Country firefighters; Ben Burbine, Tom Clements, Patrick Bone and Chris Backhouse completed a 69-floor stair climb to raise money for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society (LLS).  

The climb was a part of the 31st annual LLS Firefighter Stairclimb.

LLS has raised over $20 million since the inception of the stair climb in 1991 and has drawn firefighters from all over North America, and even Europe to take part in the event.

It was held at the Columbia Center, which is a 76-story building that is the fourth tallest structure on the west coast. 

For Backhouse, the idea to take part stemmed from his wife seeing it on social media.

“My wife saw a friend's husband do it, so she mentioned it to me,'' Backhouse told KelownaNow. “I thought it sounded like fun, and was a bit of a challenge.”

In his eighth year as a firefighter in Lake Country, Backhouse was all set to do it in 2020, before COVID hit.

It’s been a virtual event since then, but with restrictions easing across the globe, it was finally back in person and over 2,000 firefighters attended. 

Backhouse was able to round up three of his co-workers, Burbine, Clements and Bone to make the six and a half hour drive down to Seattle last weekend. 

“The atmosphere was incredible,” noted Backhouse. “You don’t normally get that many (firefighters) together, but it was really good camaraderie, everyone was being kind to each other, helping out and offering advice.”

While Backhouse does have a family member, his mother-in-law, who suffers from non-hodgkin's lymphoma, he wasn’t specifically there climbing for someone.

“That’s not really why I did it, I think it was a challenge specifically for firefighters across North America and even some Europeans,” he said. “But she has had it for a year now, and she’s pretty stable, and one day things might deteriorate, and hopefully we can do our little bit to help.” 

It took Backhouse 23 minutes to complete the 69-story climb, and while he said it was more difficult than he imagined, it wasn’t because of the weight of his equipment.

“It was more so the regulator we had on. It’s almost like breathing through a straw, as you have to physically force the breathing in as much as you can. We do use these systems, but you don't tend to be that desperate for that amount of time for air. It was quite relentless.”

Now that Backhouse is back at home in Lake Country and fully recovered, would he do it again?

“One hundred percent! Now, while I was doing it, no way but minutes after finishing, of course. Just for the atmosphere, camaraderie, and the good cause. We try to help people anyways, that's our job but this was just a bit of an extra one. All four of us said the same thing, we would for sure do it again.”

For more information about the event, please click here.