Stair climb to raise funds for blood cancer

Published 11:09 am Tuesday, January 28, 2014

The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society’s 23rd Annual Scott Firefighter Stair Climb on March 9 will bring together 1,800 firefighters from nearly 300 departments from all over the world to climb Seattle’s Columbia Tower.

Dressed in 50 pounds of “bunker gear,” including helmet, fireproof coat and pants, boots, breathing apparatus and air tanks used to fight fires, the men and women will climb 69 flights of stairs – that’s 788 feet of vertical elevation and 1,311 steps – to support the effort to cure leukemia, lymphoma, Hodgkin’s disease and myeloma.

In 2013, the event raised a record $1.44 million; this year’s goal is $2 million.

The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society (LLS) is the world’s largest voluntary health agency dedicated to blood cancer.