Helping others – one of the values practised in our family! My father and my godfather were both firemen. When the siren went off, as a child I ran to the fire station straightaway to watch the fire engines get going.

I would have liked to have done my national service with the Paris fire brigade, but they turned me down because of my poor sight. Several years later I needed the fire brigade myself to get rid of a wasp nest in my garden. We got into a conversation, and I found out they were looking for people. For me it was the perfect chance to link up with them! I was at last able to realise my dream of being part of the volunteer fire brigade, and by doing something for my community, also to follow in my father's footsteps. My eldest daughter is also in the volunteer fire brigade while she's at university. She's also doing quite a long training course over a period of four years at weekends. I'm very proud to be able to turn my dream into reality with my daughter and also with two of my nephews.

By the way, I'm also a paramedic and second assistant at the Troyes site. The activity came about naturally, and now I can use my experience gained on the outside inside the company as well.