Bravery runs through their veins.
Bravery runs through their veins.
A father and daughter duo are both firefighters at the same firehouse in the U.K.
Mark Andrews, 44, has been a firefighter for 26 years in Whitchurch, Herefordshire, and is now a crew commander.
His 20-year-old daughter Shannon has been on the job for about 18 months.
After years of dressing up in her dad's firefighter kit as a child, she joined the crew after being trained by her dad, who is also an instructor.
Shannon says some of her earliest memories are of watching her dad suit up and leave on the fire engine.
That's when Shannon knew she wanted to do the same.
"Honestly, I didn't have any worries when I told him. I just approached him and said, 'I wanna be a firefighter.' Whenever we come to the station, it's always professional, we're part of the same crew so it's not family and friends, it's just one big unified crew," she told Caters.
Both say there's no nepotism here.
"It's the same for Shannon as it would be for any other member of the group. It's about learning from your mistakes," Mark said.
With her dad training her, Shannon says she has never gotten nervous.
“I had a lot of encouragement and support from my dad,” she said.
Mark says he feels like it’s a relief to have a family member be able to relate to what he faces every day.
“It’s nice for me to be able to share my experiences because when you come home after a fire call and you talk to your family, they don’t really get what you’ve been through or where you’ve gone to but Shannon is re-living it. She is living what I went through at her age and for me it’s really nice to see her going through the same thing," he said.
Shannon says people don't believe her when she tells them what she does for a living.
"When I tell people what I do, I get a lot of disbelief. I’m young, I don’t look the strongest. I’ll be honest, I don’t look like a stereotypical firefighter but it’s all about technique really," she said.
So she shares this message for anyone else who may be in the same shoes: "If you wanna do it, you can do it."
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