Kent firefighters won’t be throwing on just any T-shirt next month.
Many members of the Kent Fire Department Regional Fire Authority will wear blue T-shirts with pink logos in support of October as Breast Cancer Awareness Month.
The shirts are provided by the Kent Firefighters Foundation, a nonprofit connected with Kent Fire Fighters Local 1747 that supports numerous charitable and educational efforts.
The International Association of Fire Fighters initiated the T-shirt idea about 10 years ago. Kent has participated each year when firefighters wear the shirts under their uniforms. And the campaign has turned into making people aware of all cancers not only breast cancer.
“Early detection is the key to one having better treatments to catching it when it’s small and simple, and for recovery that is crucial,” said engineer Nikki Smith, who helps organize the cancer awareness campaign. “We support anything we can do to help promote that.”
People notice the shirts when firefighters are out on the job.
“The more we can get the public thinking about, ‘hey, if you have a spot and it’s growing funny, go get it checked, or, ‘if you have something that’s just not right, get it checked,'” said Smith, in her 15th year with the Kent Fire Department.
People want to buy the T-shirt, too, but so far the foundation isn’t set up to sell shirts to the public. That’s something that might happen in the future to raise funds for cancer research groups. Friends and family of firefighters can buy shirts with proceeds going for cancer research or awareness, such as the Susan G. Komen group.
During the first few years of the T-shirts, Smith said many firefighters weren’t too thrilled about wearing a pink shirt. When the foundation switched to blue shirts with pink logos, participation went up.
Cancer hits close to home for the firefighters, another reason many don’t hesitate to campaign to fight it.
“The national statistics say one in eight women will get breast cancer,” Smith said. “The stats for firefighters say one in three will get cancer. It’s a lot more prevalent in our lives. We’ve had firefighters in our department get cancer and we just had a Renton firefighter die of cancer. We see it more and more, unfortunately.”
With cancer striking firefighters, it makes many of them take notice of the disease.
“I think it’s huge,” Smith said. “It makes us as firefighters aware that cancer can knock on anybody’s door not just one person or one demographic. We have firefighters that have cancer now and are fighting it. We have firefighters that have fought cancer and won. And we have firefighters who have not won. And with family members it’s the same way.”
Kyle Ohashi, spokesman for the Kent Fire Department, said the administration supports the T-shirt campaign to raise cancer awareness.
“As we’ve lost firefighters, it’s brought it home to everybody how indiscriminate that cancers are and all of us are subject to it.” Ohashi said. “Heart attacks are the number one cause of firefighters deaths but cancer is catching up because of what these guys are exposed to almost on a daily basis.”
Three Kent firefighters in the last several years suffered line-of-duty deaths from cancer, Ohashi said. Marty Hauer died at the age of 41 in 2008 from cancer.
“Marty was one of the most healthiest, fit guys you’ll ever see, so when they say cancer strikes anybody, it does,” Ohashi said.
For more information, go to the American Cancer Society website at cancer.org.
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