Joan's got a mountain to climb

ALMOST READY: Ahipara firefighter Joan Natanahira, who's preparing for this year's Sky Tower Challenge.

Ahipara firefighter Joan Natanahira has a mountain to climb on May 23. Or rather 1103 steps to the top of Auckland's Sky Tower.

She's won a place in the 2015 Sky Tower Challenge, the annual fundraiser for Leukaemia and Blood Cancer New Zealand, at her fourth attempt.

Joan, who was only puffing a little after one of last week's two training sessions with Amy Tepania, said she had tried three times to register online, but the the event was so popular that the site crashed almost the moment it opened. That had happened again this time, but she had scored one of 100 extra ballotted places.

She and a cousin had joined the Ahipara brigade in 2006, after brigade member Ben Waaka told them that it was so short of volunteers that its future was in doubt.

She was doing a heavy vehicle driving course in Kaitaia at the time, which had made her an especially valuable recruit.

Her day job is an administration role with the Ministry of Education in Kaitaia, and she's so keen to help when she's needed that she has a set of gear at the Kaitaia fire station, so she can respond to calls there during the working week.

Meanwhile she has a very personal motive for taking on the challenge - she lost her mum and a cousin to cancer - and she's doing everything in her power to ensure that she makes it to the top of the tower, carrying 25kg of gear, including breathing apparatus with her, in a respectable time.

She began her sessions with Amy three weeks ago, is taking part in a version of Zumba twice a week, and will soon begin hill climbing, in full firefighting kit.

She has also set up a Facebook page in her name to collect donations to the cause.