One of those fire fighters was Leslie McBride, a captain of the Ottawa Fire Department who was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in February 2019. Leslie’s wife, Catherine, reached out to us for support as she worked to have pancreatic cancer added as a presumptive cancer in her province so that in the future, families like hers would be entitled to benefits when a firefighter develops the disease as a result of their service.

In 2023, we were invited by the International Association of Fire Fighters (IAFF) to participate in their Health and Safety Symposium to broaden the work we were already doing for Canadian fire fighters to those in the US.

We have made it a priority to advocate for increased awareness of cancer risk and presumptive coverage for the fire fighting community across the US and Canada to ensure that the people who put their lives at risk to protect our communities receive the mental health supports they deserve.