January is Firefighters Cancer Awareness Month with the goal of bringing attention to cancer within the firefighting community.
Darren McClelland fought fires for over 25 years before battling with cancer due to the smoke. He was diagnosed with colon cancer in 2016.
“He had part of his colon removed to get the mass out of his colon. He fought cancer for three and a half years. So he would have surgeries and he would have chemotherapy,” says his wife, Nikkii McClelland.
At the time he was a deputy chief with the Swift Current Fire Department.
In 2018 he became the city’s fire chief, and kept doing the job he loved. While continuing to work, McClelland battled cancer.
“As the chief, he worked really hard juggling both, he still did online training to further his education. He was recovering from surgeries during chemo, but in all the time he was still working towards getting a higher education to be the best chief he could possibly be,” said McClelland.
He underwent an emergency surgery, but was told the cancer had moved into his liver. He tried other treatments and even went to Tijuana, Mexico to try something different. In January 2020, Darren McClelland passed away at the age of 48.
“We have two girls and it’s been two years since he’s passed. It’s not easy. I’m just trying to find our way without the man of the house here to tell us what to do or how to do it,” said McClelland. “We’re just all trying to find our way to this next path, the next journey of the next stages of this life.”
With five firefighters losing their lives to cancer in 2020, Worksafe Sask says cancer in firefighters is now the second leading cause of death from work-related diseases. From 2010 to 2018, 23% of work-related disease fatalities in Saskatchewan were from firefighter cancers.
“This line of work always brings risks and it is our responsibility to lessen those risks as much as possible,” said Layne Jackson, Regina Fire Chief.
Firefighters receive screening for cancer when they turn 50, but Nikkii thinks that’s too late. She believes it’s vital to start checking at an earlier age, so they can get treatment earlier.
“As much as I can say, yes he had cancer, he was still a healthy, healthy man up until the last four to six months. He still kept his body tip top,” said McClelland.
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