Montreal firefighters band together for colleague with rare cancer

For 17 years Montreal firefighter Lieutenant Gabriel Thibert has been putting his life at risk to save others, but since January he’s been fighting for his own life because of brain cancer.

“It all started on the 22nd of January when I had a seizure,” he explains.

January is National Firefighter Cancer Awareness Month.

Thibert, 39, was diagnosed with stage 4 glioblastoma. The father of two says he was stunned when he got the news. Since then he’s had surgery. The news also hit his colleagues hard, especially his friend, Alexandre Kheir.

“A lot of questions, a lot of grief because it’s a cancer not a lot of people get through,” says Kheir.

According to Dr. Rhian Touyz, executive director and chief scientific officer at the Research Institute of the McGill University Health Centre (RI-MUHC), glioblastoma is rare and, though it can happen to anyone at any age, it occurs mostly in men. She adds that the tumour typically grows very quickly.

“Once a diagnosis has been made, it’s usually from 12 to 18 months,” she told Global News.

In most cases, she says, researchers still don’t know what causes the disease.

That’s why Kheir and colleagues are campaigning to raise money for research at the RI-MUHC. They’re also hoping to raise more cash for a special treatment that Thibert says could extend his life.

It’s called ‘Tumours Treating Fields’ (TTF), used to fight tumours. According to the American Cancer Society TTF involves “exposing some types of tumour cells to alternating electric fields,” and that the “therapy can interfere with the cells’ ability to grow and spread.” According to Thibert, it’s pricey.

“Twenty-seven thousand dollars per month, so it’s not something you can afford when you’re a firefighter,” he laughs.

Kheir adds that there’s still another reason for the campaign.

“To raise awareness for brain cancer, the increased risk of developing cancer for firefighters in their line of work,” he points out.

It’s not known if Thibert got cancer because of his work as a firefighter, but according to the federal government, “from 2005 to 2016, 86 per cent of occupational fatality claims for Canadian firefighters were linked to cancer,” and that firefighters are “14 per cent more likely than the general public to die from cancer.”

Kheir says, however, things are improving saying, “the union is working very hard with the city right now and the Montreal fire department.”

Thibert is expected to start chemotherapy in a few weeks.

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