Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: Welcome back. As you saw during our news broadcast, the issue of firefighters dealing with cancer is very prevalent across the country. It is the leading cause of firefighter deaths, at least here in North America. And here in Quincy, there's a proactive approach to it. There's a new Foundation, a new 501c3 nonprofit called the Quincy Fire Cancer foundation established to help families who are dealing with this. And they're having a fundraiser coming up as well. So please welcome to the program Tom Bose, Sean Clancy to tell us more about it. Guys, welcome. Thank you.
[00:00:30] Speaker B: Thanks, Joe. Thanks for having me.
[00:00:31] Speaker C: Thanks, Joe.
[00:00:31] Speaker A: It's a pleasure to talk to you about this. You know, it's kind of funny, Sean, I guess you founded the foundation or co founded it, is that right?
[00:00:39] Speaker C: Yes.
[00:00:39] Speaker A: Before that announcement about the firefighters chemical gear, right?
[00:00:43] Speaker C: That's correct.
[00:00:43] Speaker A: Yeah. So can you talk to us a little bit about why you founded this foundation and what it does?
[00:00:49] Speaker C: Yes. So as statistics show, cancer is a major problem right now in the fire service.
One of my best friends over the last few years was dealing with occupational cancer. He's a Boston firefighter, Matthew Troy.
Matt lost his battle with cancer June of 2024.
And we saw that how much support he got from a foundation that was set up in Boston really helped him and how the community backed him, that we wanted to bring something like that to Quincy. So that's what we ended up starting here.
[00:01:22] Speaker A: Okay, and when was that? Just roughly. When did you start the foundation?
[00:01:26] Speaker C: About a year ago. We got off the ground with a lot of help from the community.
[00:01:30] Speaker A: Sure. And has it helped? Has it worked?
[00:01:33] Speaker C: Yes.
So as you've. We've looked into different avenues of how we can support our guys, mitigate some of the risks of these cancer diagnosis.
And we started reaching out to different companies and how we can support them.
[00:01:49] Speaker A: Is there an issue here in Quincy, Shawn, with firefighters dealing with cancer?
[00:01:53] Speaker C: Yes. We currently have two members dealing with cancer.
[00:01:56] Speaker A: Okay.
Occupational related?
[00:01:59] Speaker C: Yes.
[00:01:59] Speaker A: Okay. And we saw, you know, during that press conference about the gear, I guess it's the bunker gear, I guess it's called.
[00:02:07] Speaker C: Yes.
[00:02:08] Speaker A: But that's not the only reason, right, that there's occupational cancer among firefighters.
[00:02:12] Speaker C: No, definitely not.
[00:02:13] Speaker A: What are some of the other reasons?
[00:02:15] Speaker C: So the carcinogens now in all the new materials, all the plastics, a lot of stuff is definitely made a lot faster nowadays.
So these are prevalent in a lot of the houses we go into to fight these fires.
They're burning a lot hotter, they're burning more aggressively.
And we just need to make sure that we're doing the right thing with masking up and making sure that we keep ourselves clean.
We do have extractors in the firehouses, and that's something that Tom and the guys, before I even got there, were working on. So I think Tom could probably give you some more information about those.
[00:02:53] Speaker A: Yeah, Tom, I know the mayor made a point of mentioning the fact that he was. He called them laundry.
[00:02:58] Speaker B: Yeah. I mean, the city's. You know, thanks to the mayor, the city council, the citizens, the taxpayers, they've done a great job trying to prevent occupational cancer.
The extractors, they've built new rooms in every station where we can come back from a fire. We get gross decon now with a fire scene. So they're washing everything off from us before we get on the truck. We go back, we take everything off. There's a shower right there on the main floor. We throw our gear in. The extractor, it's all NFPA compliant.
Washes the gear. We have dryers for the gear. Our station closes washers and dryers right there. We can grab a hot shower. You want to shower within the hour. The hottest shower you can take. That's recommended. You want to get this stuff out of your system and then you go back to living quarters. So the city's done an incredible job.
Obviously, it was really sad to see what happened with the gear, but the city's done its part trying to help prevent occupational cancer.
[00:03:43] Speaker A: Yeah, it sounds like the city's really taking the lead across the country.
[00:03:46] Speaker B: They really have. They've been great. And obviously this issue with the gear, they've been on top of it. It's been great to see the support from everybody across the city has been phenomenal.
[00:03:54] Speaker A: Yeah. Is 792 also part of the new foundation?
[00:03:58] Speaker B: They are doing their own thing. They have a board of directors. They've done a great job. Sean and Sean should be proud. It's great to see a couple young, newer members of the department get involved like this.
[00:04:06] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:04:06] Speaker B: Because it's a good thing they have a whole board too, Joe, that a lot of young guys. Yeah, it's great. Great sign.
[00:04:12] Speaker A: It's not a new issue. Right.
[00:04:13] Speaker B: It's firearms, you know, it's probably been more prevalent in the past 10, 15 years or so. Yeah, I stopped my 2060th next month.
[00:04:22] Speaker A: And you were 10 when you started.
[00:04:23] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, exactly. Yeah.
[00:04:24] Speaker A: Thanks, Joe.
[00:04:25] Speaker B: No, you know what? We didn't know it back then. Back then, it was. You wanted to be as dirty as you could coming out of a fire. And nowadays it's kind of a badge of courage, right? It was.
[00:04:32] Speaker A: It was.
[00:04:32] Speaker B: But know, how stupid were we back then? We didn't even know, Joe, you know?
[00:04:35] Speaker A: Yeah. You don't know what? You don't know. No, you don't.
[00:04:38] Speaker B: But these guys have done a great job, you know, it's amazing. Yeah.
[00:04:41] Speaker A: And it's not only the firefighters, but it's. It's their families.
[00:04:44] Speaker B: Correct, Joe? We have a couple wives fighting cancer right now too, as well.
[00:04:47] Speaker A: Right.
[00:04:47] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. It's that, you know, but we're with them. These guys are doing a great job. Kudos to them.
[00:04:52] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah. They're going into people's homes wearing this gear.
[00:04:56] Speaker B: Our guys have the gear.
Members, guys and girls, they have the gear in their cars. They get detailed throughout the station. They work overtime. You never know.
[00:05:04] Speaker A: Exactly. So, Sean, let's talk a bit more about the foundation, if we can. Who is helping you with this, by the way?
[00:05:10] Speaker C: So myself. Sean Grady is the vice president as well as eight other board members who are helping us as well as. I wouldn't say any of this is possible without the support of the community.
We have plenty of donors that have helped us so far. So it's not possible without, I want to say, Pat Foley, his law offices. He has an assistant over there, Julianne, who helped us form all the paperwork to be legitimately a 501 organization.
[00:05:37] Speaker A: Yeah, that's not an easy task.
[00:05:38] Speaker C: I know we figured that out.
[00:05:41] Speaker A: A lot of bureaucracy that goes into that, but kudos to you for succeeding. Thank you. And that was a pretty short amount of time, actually, considering. So what does the foundation do? What is its mission?
[00:05:52] Speaker C: So we're working to protect our firefighters. Either that could be through early detection, prevention, or just being an advocate. Just giving them the proper avenue of approach if they're faced with occupational cancer.
[00:06:03] Speaker A: Sure. How do you kind of, you know, reach out to folks who may be dealing with this? What is, what is your line of communication right now? We.
[00:06:13] Speaker C: We are a growing department. Yeah. As Tom sent us an email today, we're about to have 282 members.
But I would like to say that we are also very tight knit. So we see these guys, these guys and girls almost every day.
Our phones are always on. We hope everyone has our phone number. It's on the board. So if anybody needs to reach out, we're right there.
[00:06:35] Speaker A: Okay. And so I'll just briefly read, I guess, the mission, if you will.
And it's to support Quincy firefighters and their families as they face the challenges of fighting occupational cancer and to provide proactive measures such as early cancer screenings for Quincy firefighters. Talk a little bit more about the early cancer screening if you can.
[00:06:56] Speaker C: Yes. So there's been great strides in this blood work testing.
[00:06:59] Speaker A: Yes.
[00:07:00] Speaker C: So you can actually go in, take a blood work test that takes about 10 minutes. It is sent out to a lab in California where they test for 50 different types of cancer and you will get the results within a week or two.
[00:07:13] Speaker A: Okay. The foundation is working to make that an affordable option, right?
[00:07:18] Speaker C: Yes, absolutely.
[00:07:19] Speaker A: Okay. So will part of the fundraiser being held at Gran Olynx support that?
[00:07:23] Speaker C: Yes.
[00:07:24] Speaker A: Okay, it will. Okay.
Have you been able to assist to any families so far? Do you know that are dealing with this?
[00:07:32] Speaker C: As far as just talking with a few members?
Just.
I want to say that if we could send someone out just for a few hours with their family and get their mindset off of cancer, that's our main.
We're not doctors, but we can try to make as much as we can just to help these guys and girls in the fire department, so.
[00:07:54] Speaker A: Right. And will you also. Will the foundation help to fund things like, I don't know, transportation costs or meals or childcare for.
[00:08:02] Speaker C: Yeah, so that's something we're working towards. Obviously it's a big step if your whole family is going to be dealing with it. And that's how it goes.
[00:08:11] Speaker A: It's not just one person, Right?
[00:08:12] Speaker C: Yes.
[00:08:12] Speaker A: It impacts everyone, family, friends and co workers as well. All right, let's talk about something fun. The golf fundraiser September 22nd at Randolin's. What will be happening?
[00:08:24] Speaker C: That's going to be our inaugural golf spot first fundraiser. That's it? Yes. That's September 22nd. We're going to be doing a shotgun start around 11:00am okay. And we have 144 players as of right now.
[00:08:36] Speaker A: Wow, that's great.
[00:08:37] Speaker C: Yes.
[00:08:37] Speaker A: Excellent. Okay.
And is that from all walks of life across the city? Dito. Or is that.
[00:08:43] Speaker C: I want to say we're about 85 to 90% firefighters.
[00:08:46] Speaker A: Super.
[00:08:46] Speaker C: And we sold out in, I want to say, the first three or four hours.
[00:08:50] Speaker A: Did you really?
[00:08:51] Speaker C: Incredible to see.
[00:08:52] Speaker A: Okay, nice to see.
So it's an all day affair. What will be happening?
[00:08:57] Speaker C: Yes. So they're going to start with golf and then afterwards we're going to have a silent auction with raffles and a tent after. So we're going to have food and dinner for the members.
[00:09:06] Speaker A: Okay. Can you mention some of the auction items?
[00:09:09] Speaker C: The silent auction. We have a gentleman coming up and there's going to be signed raffles. We're going to have a few. Four sums.
I want to say that one of them is to TPC in Boston, which is a private course, very difficult to get into.
Fortunately, we had one of our members actually step up and grant that for us.
[00:09:27] Speaker A: Very nice.
[00:09:28] Speaker C: It's definitely a team effort.
[00:09:29] Speaker A: Excellent. Tom's smiling because.
[00:09:31] Speaker B: Yeah, no, it's incredible.
Yeah, it's incredible.
[00:09:35] Speaker A: And. And come together. Yeah. I'm assuming 792 is one of the sponsors.
[00:09:38] Speaker B: Absolutely.
[00:09:39] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:09:39] Speaker B: I haven't sponsored a whole myself, so.
[00:09:41] Speaker A: Oh, very good. Okay.
[00:09:42] Speaker B: They got, I think 60 sponsors.
[00:09:43] Speaker C: Yes, upwards of 60.
[00:09:45] Speaker B: That's incredible.
[00:09:46] Speaker C: Awesome.
[00:09:47] Speaker B: A big thanks too, to Granite Links. I mean, they've been great about this whole thing.
[00:09:50] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:09:50] Speaker B: Great to the community.
[00:09:51] Speaker A: So it's. So it's full.
[00:09:53] Speaker C: Yes.
[00:09:53] Speaker A: Sponsorship wise, but not donation wise.
[00:09:56] Speaker C: Right, not donation wise. So we have a donation page on our website, the quincyfirecancerfoundation.com.
[00:10:03] Speaker A: Okay, very good. And those are tax deductible because you're a legit 501c3 corporation. Do you have any kind of goal, Sean, for how much you'd like to raise during the golf tournament?
[00:10:12] Speaker C: As much as possible. Just goes right back to our guys. Everything that we have is getting donated. Right. Directly to them.
[00:10:19] Speaker A: Right, absolutely. Are you getting inquiries from other departments, other communities about a similar type of foundation?
[00:10:26] Speaker C: Not yet.
We have some good friends over in Boston so far, so working with them in the future will be a great thing.
[00:10:34] Speaker A: Yeah, absolutely. You mentioned the blood test and I know that over in Milton they were conducting a fundraiser, not a golf tournament, I think was just an auction to help firefighters and their families afford those blood tests. So that sounds like a critical element.
[00:10:48] Speaker C: Absolutely. Just getting out there and being able to get that early diagnosis increases your chances by well over 90%.
[00:10:55] Speaker A: It's incredible. Yeah. Early detection, any kind of cancer, absolutely. These days is the best chance for a positive outcome. For sure. Have either one of you. I know you, Sean. Told your story. How about you, Tom? Have you dealt directly or indirectly with cancer?
[00:11:08] Speaker B: Just the members. There's a couple members, like Sean said, out there fighting cancer right now, unfortunately, we have a couple wives out there right now fighting cancer. We're all a family. That's our second families on the fire service.
[00:11:18] Speaker A: Second. You know, I mentioned this all the time. They called firehouses. Right. Not fire stations.
[00:11:23] Speaker B: Correct, Joe?
[00:11:23] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:11:24] Speaker B: It's a brotherhood second home. It is, it is.
[00:11:27] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:11:27] Speaker B: There's a lot of camaraderie, so it's tough to see a lot of these guys, especially the Guys fighting, you know, ones from my station. I've known the guys for a long time. Great guys, wives, kids, family guys, you know, you work your whole life and you want to retire and enjoy retirement. And, you know, they're fighting, they're doing what they can. And we couldn't do this without the help of Dana Farber, too. They've been great, great partners with us.
We made a great connection with the Dana Farber that our guys can just call. There's a phone number, anyone in their family, and they just, they get treated like gold over there.
[00:11:57] Speaker A: That's amazing. We're so fortunate.
[00:11:59] Speaker B: We are.
[00:11:59] Speaker A: We're very lucky in this region. People come from all over the world.
[00:12:02] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, absolutely.
[00:12:03] Speaker A: With regards to the gear, Tom, the bunker gear, is there gear that exists for you guys that does not have those forever chemicals in them?
[00:12:15] Speaker B: I'm going to say no for the simple fact that everyone's saying that they have PFAS Free gear. Joe, as we found out, as we found out, the company that was advertising PFAS Free gear for the past four years, unfortunately, no one's doing any independent testing.
[00:12:27] Speaker A: I see.
[00:12:28] Speaker B: We were the first community in North America to send out a set of gear for independent testing. We did it because there was an issue with some labeling based on a new state law.
There was some back and forth. That's what started it. And we were sending it out for a test on the moisture barrier. And right off the bat, the professor called and he said, you have some issues here with the outer layer. I said, couldn't be possible. It's advertised as PFAS Free. And they're trying to say it's trace amounts. Joe, it's 20,000 pots per million they found in the gills.
[00:12:54] Speaker A: Yeah, I know. Ed mentioned that.
[00:12:55] Speaker B: That's not trace amounts.
[00:12:55] Speaker A: It's lethal amounts.
[00:12:56] Speaker B: It is, it is. It's sad, but we got them and it started something country wide where we're gonna turn this around, especially Joe. I'm late in the game. These young guys, they gotta fight and shot, right?
[00:13:08] Speaker A: To be able to nip it in the budget.
[00:13:09] Speaker B: I didn't know for the last 25 years. Yeah, none of us did.
[00:13:12] Speaker A: You know, talked to the mayor about it earlier this week, actually said there's kind of some new policies where you're really being very judicious about when you have to wear that gear.
[00:13:20] Speaker B: Unfortunately, Joe, we've had to change the way we do business firefighting in the city because of that. We were always told to suit up for certain calls. Now we're not going to be certain. Up for student calls, obviously fighters. We have to wear it.
[00:13:30] Speaker A: Alarm clothes.
[00:13:30] Speaker B: We have to wear it. But yeah, I mean, it's sad that we had to change the way we do business because of what we're dealing with.
[00:13:35] Speaker A: Exactly.
[00:13:35] Speaker B: I'll give the chief and the mayor kudos for, for all those changes on this. They've been supporting us 100%.
[00:13:40] Speaker A: Yeah, that's good to hear. Absolutely. It is. Hopefully. Have you found that other departments now are saying, hey, what about our gear?
[00:13:46] Speaker B: Across the country from Newfoundland to California.
[00:13:48] Speaker A: Really?
[00:13:49] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. It's eye opening. Everyone thinks they've been duped and we're gonna find out. So we've sent six more sets out and we should have those results some point next week.
[00:13:58] Speaker A: Oh, very good.
[00:13:59] Speaker B: I'm hoping it was a one time thing, Joe, but it's tough to trust these companies now.
[00:14:02] Speaker A: Interesting. It's also interesting that it was a state law that triggered the investigation, triggered.
[00:14:06] Speaker B: The whole controversy and investigation initially.
[00:14:09] Speaker A: I wonder if other states will look at enacting some.
[00:14:11] Speaker B: Starting to see some laws around the country.
But you know, they're all advertising it. You just, you have to test and we're pay for the testing. And these guys, kudos to them pitching in to help pay for the testing with the foundation. They're protecting us. It's good to see, really good to see.
[00:14:23] Speaker A: Are the chemicals needed, Tom, to make the firefighter gear protective.
[00:14:27] Speaker B: All these companies compete with each other, Joe, to be the best, the best water repellency, the best performance.
So the reason they're adding these is for water repellency.
[00:14:35] Speaker A: Okay. Yeah.
[00:14:36] Speaker B: So there's pfas and everything, Joe, but the levels we're seeing, it's awful.
[00:14:41] Speaker A: Right, okay, well, it started here. We'll see where it ended here.
Yeah, absolutely. Sean, for the foundation, what are your know, your hopes for it going forward?
[00:14:52] Speaker C: We hope this is just the beginning.
[00:14:54] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:14:55] Speaker C: Throughout fundraising, we want to just make sure that we hope that we don't have any more guys that catch cancer. So that's really our motive going forward.
[00:15:04] Speaker A: Yeah, absolutely. Do you have other future events planned or thinking about? Is the board batted around some thoughts?
[00:15:10] Speaker C: As of right now, we got the golf. Just putting that together. It's been pretty eye opening the amount of people that we're dealing with. But I don't know, maybe a road race or something down in the future. So something Aaron Quincy would be nice.
[00:15:20] Speaker A: All right, very good. So again, that is sold out. Unfortunately, folks can come and be a spectator. Absolutely cheer on their favorite foursome. But Again, it's Monday, September 22nd, at Granite Lakes.
What time is the shotgun start? 11:00am 11:00am okay. And Tom, we have a couple of minutes left. The bocce tournament is coming up.
[00:15:40] Speaker B: Absolutely, absolutely. To help fight breast cancer.
[00:15:42] Speaker A: Yes.
Saturday, September 20th, 11 o'. Clock. Is it Olindy's again?
[00:15:48] Speaker B: No, this is the Pawn street box. Yep.
[00:15:50] Speaker A: Gotcha. Yeah. Okay.
[00:15:51] Speaker B: Over in South Queens. Yeah, it's, you know, our guys once again stepping up. We're committed to the community, Joe. We're part of this community.
Anything we can do to help, you.
[00:15:59] Speaker A: Know, Excellent social media, Sean, as well. For the foundation.
[00:16:04] Speaker C: Yes. My wife actually runs the Instagram, so she's on there.
It's really been a full effort. We have wife, sisters, family members all helping us talk about grassroots.
[00:16:14] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:16:15] Speaker C: Yes.
[00:16:15] Speaker A: Okay. So find you on all the major.
[00:16:17] Speaker C: Platforms, Instagram and just the website.
[00:16:20] Speaker A: Okay. All right. Anything else we should add right now, do you think?
[00:16:23] Speaker B: Thanks for your time, Joe. Thank you.
[00:16:25] Speaker A: Oh, we're happy to do it. Yeah, absolutely. Check out the main website or give a call as well, or send an email and get more information. And please keep us in the loop as to how the foundation makes out and how the testing makes.
[00:16:38] Speaker B: Definitely will.
[00:16:38] Speaker A: Address. Okay, absolutely. Thanks, guys.
[00:16:40] Speaker C: Thank you.
[00:16:41] Speaker A: You're very welcome.
