By Scott Roblin

Community raising money to support local firefighter battling leukemia

Feb 19, 2019 | 5:02 PM

MEDICINE HAT, AB – The push is on from the first responder community to help one of their own, after a Medicine Hat firefighter was recently diagnosed with cancer.

Lieutenant Cam Potts, a firefighting veteran of over 20 years, went to his family doctor on January 21 after feeling unwell for a few weeks.

Following tests at the Tom Baker Cancer Centre, Potts was diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia two days later and is expected to go through a treatment plan of up to six months.

Travis and Megan Cross have been close friends with Cam and his wife Alison for years, who were married just three months ago.

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Megan said it was a shock to a system when they learned about the diagnosis.

“To go two months later to receiving a diagnosis of leukemia and realizing how life-threatening that is, it’s devastating,” said Cross.

The road to recovery has been a rocky one so far for Cam, who needed to be treated for H1N1 before his chemotherapy began and has since fought a bacterial infection.

Fellow firefighter and Medicine Hat Firefighters Association member Curtis Noble said the first responder community is close and takes a hit whenever one of their own falls ill.

“We’re a small, tight-knit group, a small family if you will,” said Noble. “So, whenever things like this do come up, it does hit home quite hard. But, it is something that unfortunately happens all to often.”

In the past week, friends of the Potts family launched a GoFundMe page to help raise money to cover various expenses associated with Cam’s stay in Calgary.

Megan said Cam supported their family when Travis was recovering from an accident, and added it’s their turn to lend a hand.

“When my husband was injured, the support that we received was support that you didn’t know you needed,” she said. “Having that support for us was something that we couldn’t have asked for, but we really appreciated.”

As of Tuesday evening, the GoFundMe page had raised close to $3,000 and a push is on to get locals swabbed for bone marrow matches, a key part of the recovery from acute myeloid leukemia.

Cross said the goal is to raise enough money to allow Alison to take time away from her business and stay with Cam in Calgary.

“If she’s at work in Medicine Hat, she’s not able to be up with Cam in Calgary,” she said. “And, I think when someone is fighting something like leukemia after such a short diagnosis and such a quick event, she needs to be there for him and he needs her.”

Unfortunately, cancer among the local firefighting ranks is nothing new, with Noble estimating around 20 members of the Medicine Hat Fire Department have been diagnosed with cancer over the past decade.

“In the last 20 years we’re seeing increasing and increasing number of firefighters that are coming down with cancers that are directly related to the toxins released in the fires, in the homes, in the cars and vehicles,” he said.

To help mitigate the effects of the carcinogens, local firefighters are encouraged to properly wash both their equipment and themselves following a call.

Noble said cancer is a known risk of becoming a firefighter, but he said more crews are becoming educated about how to limit that risk.

“In days of old, it used to be a badge of honour to have say a dirty helmet or a dirty jacket,” he said. “Nowadays, the culture has definitely changed in the realm of knowing that those toxic substances are, to be blunt, killing people. So, knowing the effects, knowing how to mitigate it and how to move forward, it’s been well received.”

It’s a part of the job that Cross said a lot of people don’t recognize as one of the dangers of the job and is hoping the fundraising campaign sheds a light on the issue.

“We all know what firefighters do for us when we see them fighting a fire, when we see them at an accident,” she said. “But, I think sometimes we forget that there are other hazards with the job. This support from the community in the last, I guess 12 hours, has been incredible.”

She added the support isn’t something the Potts family asked for, but is something they deserve to make these difficult days a little easier.

“He has the biggest heart,” she said. “He’s a wonderful father, husband, brother, friend. He’s just an incredible person and I know he is eternally grateful and just so overwhelmed with the support that he’s received, and he deserves it.”

Cross confirmed they are planning additional fundraisers for the Potts family in the coming weeks and are looking forward to the day that he is able to return home to Medicine Hat.