'This Humanitarian Medal is also a reward for my family' says brave Midlands firefighter who tackled earthquakes and wildfires
"This Humanitarian Medal and trip to the palace is as much a reward for my wife as it is for me" says retired firefighter who was rewarded by the King for tackling major disasters.
Former West Midlands Fire Service Technical Rescue unit officer Shyam Rana, who lives in Cannock, was rewarded at a special ceremony at Buckingham Palace on Tuesday watched on by his proud wife Davina.
The father-of-two was nominated for his award by the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office due to deployments to major humanitarian crises across the globe.
The 55-year-old was an operations commander for the Morocco Response, from West Midlands Fire and Rescue Service and member of the UK International Search and Rescue team (ISAR).
He was deployed in the search to reach people under collapsed buildings. ISAR has specialist equipment to monitor further seismic activity and cut through cement. Aftershocks remained a risk throughout the deployment.
Mr Rana says: “It was fantastic to take my wife as a huge thank you because she’s always been the one left at home worrying about me, looking after the kids and dealing with broken boilers, cars and all sorts, which always had a tendency to go wrong while I was away.
“I remember Davina had been giving me a little bit of grief after I’d been away doing 10 days cold-weather training in Sweden. I’d literally been back for two hours when my pager went off and I had to rush out of bed to deploy to the Turkey earthquake in 2023.
“But I was never in the bad books for long because everyone in my family understood why it was important.
