A FIREFIGHTING florist, who runs from her shop to attend emergencies, is calling on fellow villagers to sign up.

Wendy Rowley was inspired to sign up as a retained firefighter at Welwyn station after an appeal in the WHT five years ago.

Now the mum-of-two who juggles running The Old Welwyn Florist in the village, her home life and responding to all kinds of 999 calls, is inviting others to sign up too.

Married Wendy, 42, lives and works just minutes from the fire station on Hertford Road and carries a pager when she is on call, and goes running every time it sends a message.

Wendy said: “I had never thought about joining the fire service before reading the article, but thought I would like to find out more about it.

“I’ve always done a lot of sport, and kept fairly fit and healthy, so I thought I would give it a try.”

She added: “There’s a lot of mums in the village and I see a lot of joggers going past the shop.

“It’s such a rewarding job and I would recommend it to any woman.

“At first I didn’t know how the guys would accept me being a woman, but they have all been great, very encouraging and supportive, now they treat me like ‘one of the lads’.”

Anyone who is interested in being an on-call firefighter at Welwyn should call 01992 507507.