A RETIRED firefighter is using his 85th birthday to raise money for his former colleagues.

Doug Cringle from Dalton served with Manchester Fire & Rescue Service for 15 years and ended his career with the service in Kent.

He hung up his helmet after clocking up a total of 30 years and 90 days in the fire service and later worked at Barrow Town Hall in the car parks team.

Mr Cringle celebrates his 85th birthday today at home with his family.

“My daughter Steph lives in Kent and she rang me and said she’s coming up with her husband and son and wanted to take me out for a meal for my birthday," he said.

“But I said to her what I’d really like to do is to use my birthday to raise some money for the Fire Fighters Charity.

“I’ve been asking businesses to put one of the collection tins on their counters; the people at he Brown Cow said they’d have one no problem, and I’ve asked a shop near me too.”

The Fire Fighters Charity supports former and serving firefighters in all aspects of physical health, mental health, and social wellbeing.

One of the local businesses which is supporting Mr Cringle’s fundraising is the Townhouse in Dalton Road in Barrow.

General manager Sean Miles said: “We’ve just launched our 20 per cent offer on all food and drink for emergency services workers so when we heard about Doug’s fundraising we were really keen to help out.

“We thought it was a lovely gesture for him to use his birthday as a way of raising money so we offered to put two of the collection tins on our bar so our customers can donate to this worthy cause.”