JUST three hours into her first night as Marlborough’s newest retained fire fighter, Cat Cady was called out of bed to respond to an emergency call at St John’s School.

Speaking about hearing the emergency bleeper go off for the first time, she said: “When the alarm went off I was terrified. it is hard to describe how loud the alarm is and I had never heard it before. I jumped out of bed and when I got to the station the others knew it was my first call-out. But then the training kicked in and once the adrenalin had calmed down I realised there was just the job to be done.”

Luckily the call was a false alarm and since then Miss Cady has slotted her role around working as a personal trainer and horse rider for Brian Meehan.

Miss Cady, 25, has lived in Marlborough for her whole life and believes it is her ability to help and educate others that will make her a success in the on-call firefighter role.

After spending two years thinking about joining the service, she signed up and has already spent one month with the team of retained firefighters. She said: “I was worried that my clients might be in the middle of a session and I’d have to run out and leave them alone in the gym. But they have been so supportive. As the only girl in the station I didn’t know if I would be good enough, but everybody has been lovely. My family think it is great. I have always been a jack of all trades so they knew I would be good at it.

“Being a personal trainer has made it easier for me to talk to people and educate them about what they are doing. You have to be quite patient when you are telling them something for their own safety. My outlook has changed too. When I joined I was most terrified about the fitness tests. Although I’m active I was worried I wouldn’t be fit enough but you surprise yourself how much you can do if you go for it.”

To find out more visit: www.dwfire.org.uk/working-for-us/on-call-firefighters/