My name's Ricky Nuttall. I'm 39 and I'm a firefighter from London. My life has been full of ups and downs. From moving around a lot as a kid to a physically abusive step-dad. Issues with confidence and self worth as well as desperately trying to fit in with a world that I felt rejected by so often. I used my humour as a defence mechanism for too many years. All in all though, I.was doing ok. I had a home. A son. A dream job with the London Fire Brigade and a girlfriend of 8 years. Nothing could have prepared me for the way in which it was all about to be ripped away from me.

On the 14th June 2017 I attended a fire at Grenfell Tower which took the lives of 72 people in a single night. It broke me. I spiralled into depression and PTSD and struggled to get through each day. I wrote. Like my life depended on it. Because, as I later found out, it did. I ended up becoming a published poet and making a cinematic short film based on that poem. A subsequent series of tv and radio appearances then helped me to reach out to others struggling with PTSD, and helped save my life. I'm Ricky Nuttall and this is my story.

The Firefighter Film: Click Here

Ricky’s Instagram: @rockymcChopChop

Grenfell Documentary: Click Here