Climbing for MND

July 17, 2025
Updated September 4, 2025

On Friday, August 29, a group of firefighters from Oberon Rural Fire Service will be climbing some steps to raise money for research into Motor Neurone Disease (MND). And it's not just the few steps to your front door, it's the 1.1 kilometre Furber Steps near Katoomba. Oh, and that's 1.1 kilometres uphill after you walk 1.1kilometres back to the start, and they plan to do the round trip as many times as they can on the day. In previous years the climb has been up Centrepoint Tower, but this is a bit more local and in just the sort of bushland that the RFS is here to protect.

The team from Oberon RFS.

The NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service have a page all about the Furber Steps here, and the thought of doing it just once brings on exhaustion, let alone the idea to repeat the walk several times on one day. The team have been getting ready for this with a lot of fitness training, but treadmills and gym step machines don't get you really ready for this walk - think the height distance between the bottom and top of the Scenic Railway nearby.

Click for a larger map of the climb

A gentle climb. Photo supplied

The climbing starts at midday on August 29, and everyone is invited to come along and cheer the climbers. More importantly, everyone is encouraged to donate to the cause, which you can do by following the link below. And don't worry if you go there and the target of $5,000 has already been reached - more money is always better than just enough, and medical research is expensive, particularly into something as difficult to pin down as MND.

A special thanks has to go to Tara Ellery from Oberon RFS for doing the organising for this fund raiser. These things don't happen without a lot of work that nobody sees.

You can find out what Oberon RFS is up to by following their Facebook page.

See also: Firies climb for MND

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