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Mesothelioma News | 2008
Firefighters from Portage Work to Aid Comrade with Cancer
Brad Wilson was always the first firefighter to step forward to help co-workers in need throughout his 25-year career with the Portage Fire Department.
Rick Nason, a firefighter and president of the Portage Professional Firefighters Union said, "If someone needed to switch days, or had an emergency or if someone was plain down on their luck, Brad would be the first person to offer to work a shift for them or organize some effort to help."
"When I came back to work after dealing with my dad's death, he insisted on working two shifts for me -- I mean he actually forced me to stay home."
The 55-year-old Oshtemo Township resident is unselfish to a fault commented fellow co-workers who echoed Nason's admiration of Wilson's think-of-others-first demeanor.
Though under hard circumstances, Portage's firefighter brethren now want to step up to repay Wilson for his goodwill gestures throughout the years.
In the past month, Brad Wilson received a stage-three mesothelioma diagnosis, a form of cancer that affects the respiratory system and is usually related to asbestos exposure. Doctors have given him 6 to 18 months to live and he is no longer able to work. The dismal outlook, however, hasn't prevented the 29-member fire department crew from rallying around a wonderful mentor and friend.
Because fellow firefighters are working his regularly scheduled, 24-hour shifts on a rotating basis, Wilson is able to maintain long-term disability benefits through September. Nason acknowledged city administration for permitting the arrangement and praised co-workers for stepping up to help someone in need just as Wilson did so many times in his career.
Firefighters have also organized a spaghetti dinner at the Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 5855. The money collected through donations at the door will help offset expenses that will be incurred when Wilson, his wife, Cinda, and mother, Mary Lubbert, leave for Houston in a few days.
Treatment options, including possible experimental medicines will be discussed with specialists at the M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston after they examine his lungs. Wilson commented that there are favorable odds that he may have to return at a later date for an operation that could result in the removal of a lung.
Figuring out how he acquired mesothelioma isn't something that Brad Wilson is preoccupied with. He does believe, however, that the time spent in the ruins of a structural fire without a respirator is a likely culprit and he accepts it a "part of the job of being a firefighter."
Wilson's wife, Cinda commented that her husband gets restless at times but that he tries to stay upbeat.
"The most difficult part for me is seeing how much Brad misses going into work, it just kills him," said Cinda. "The guys at the station aren't just co-workers to Brad it's as if they were blood relations, part of his family."
Brad's co-workers at Portage Station 3, take his helmet with them on every call they go on. Through that gesture "a piece of Brad is with us wherever we go -- no matter what, he'll always be with us" Nason said.
Serving as Honor Guard and as the department's ambassador during Portage parades are just some of the outside project Wilson enjoyed working on for the department. Supporting underprivileged children and raising money to fight muscular dystrophy are other efforts that Brad enjoyed working on as well.
As Nason summarized, "Brad has a character that isn't evident in everybody. Who he is as a person, is a reflection of and a credit to the city and the firefighter profession."
