VIDEO: “Firefighters have a nine percent greater chance of getting cancer than the general public, but we have a fourteen percent chance of dying from it than the general public,” said Joe Schumacher, COO of the Firefighter Cancer Support Network.
The Firefighter Cancer Support Network was created to help bring down that statistic and educate firefighters on protecting themselves from this disease.
Schumacher is a three time cancer survivor and a thirty year firefighter veteran.
He helps educate firefighters who have been diagnosed with cancer by supplying them a toolbox of resources they and their families can use during that difficult time, including a 230 page manual that covers all the questions they may have.
Another one of their programs is the badge to badge support, which pairs two officers together that have and have survived the same type of cancer.