Hennessy attended a careers evening during sixth form, and from that day knew that she was interested in a career in the military or the emergency services. Although she initially applied to be a paramedic, she was still considering firefighting, so came along to a Tuesday evening Ross on Wye Fire Station drill night, and then kept coming back to watch the drills for six months! Hennessy had always wanted to have a career where she would be caring for others, and as soon as she met the crew and experienced a drill night, she knew that this was the way forward.
“The crew are like a second family. I’m the only female and the youngest at the Station and the crew immediately made me feel included, never for a minute feeling left out.”
Hennessy has been an On-Call firefighter for almost three years and made a best friend through her training. They now go along to women’s events together, recently attending the Women in the Fire Service Training and Development Weekend at the Fire Service College in Moreton in Marsh. Hennessy’s daytime job is working as a sales advisor for a builder’s merchant and so she covers 80 hours for the Fire Service, evenings and weekends. Her long-term goal is to become a Wholetime firefighter, ideally working with community groups in areas such as recruitment or prevention.
“My advice to anyone interested in joining would be just to do it! It’s not an everyday job, every day is unexpected. It’s the perfect job for me.”
