Elliot Brown's exclusive firefighter's watch raises £11K

Elliot Brown has made a substantial donation from funds raised from the sale of the Elliot Brown FBU special edition timepiece to the mental health charity Mind, the Firefighters Charity and the Firefighters 100 Lottery good cause fund. £1,000 of the money raised will also be used to fund a firefighter(s) to mount their own fundraising challenge, with a proportion of the money they raise coming back to the FBU’s lottery fund. 

Matt Wrack, FBU general secretary, said that the firefighter watch was a first for the union. “The union has never done anything like this before so it was a bit of a risk to see if people would go for it”, he said. “But we had an amazing reception to the deal and have been able to raise thousands as a result, money that will make a real difference to peoples’ lives”.

Karen Bolton, Head of Community & Events Fundraising at Mind, said: “We’re tremendously grateful to the Fire Brigades Union for such a generous donation. Every penny will help us provide vital support for people with mental health problems.”

Ian Elliot, co-founder of Elliot Brown Watches, said: “I'd like to express my thanks to all at the FBU and firefighters themselves for their unwavering support and I hope that the money we’ve donated goes some way to easing the difficulties of those it will help.”

FBU members can apply for the £1,000 to kick-start their own fundraising challenge via the union’s website. Visit www.fbu.org.uk/forms and click on the Charity Project Grant Application form to make your application.

Bex Sims, a FBU member based in Nottinghamshire, has won a place on leg 6 of the prestige Clipper 2017-18 Round the World Yacht Race. Sims will join the race in March 2018 departing from Qingdao in North Eastern China for Seattle spending four weeks at sea. The competition, advertised in Firefighter last July, was organised by Elliot Brown Watches, the official timekeeper of the Clipper Race. Clipper generously donated a full week’s training for eight firefighters as they were keen to have a firefighter participate and Bex secured the place against stiff competition.  

As a result of the success of the 2017 campaign a second batch of the special edition watches will be available next year with the addition of a ladies version. The pre-order window is likely to be eight weeks during Feb/March 2018 with a split payment option to help spread the load. Production takes 120 days which means deliveries are likely to be in August/Sept. Sign up here if you are interested in this next batch:  http://eepurl.com/c1C9ND.