MESA, Ariz. — A Mesa firefighter continues his long battle with cancer and recently tested positive for COVID-19 too.
"Luckily I’m vaccinated and got my booster shot, so I'm doing well," Captain Trevor Madrid with the Mesa Fire and Medical Department said.
He said he was first diagnosed in March of 2019.
"It’s called Synovial Sarcoma it’s the fifth rarest cancer, it’s a really rare cancer."
He'd been fighting flames for more than a dozen years, but the last 2.5 years, he hasn't been able to do what he loves.
"I was like I’m 33, I don’t need to go to the hospital for abdominal pain."
He thought he was invincible.
"I was super healthy, 210 pounds with a six-pack."
But the truth is, no firefighter is.
"In the last five years, we’ve lost two firefighters in Mesa to cancer," friend and colleague Captain Steve Heyer stated.
He said Madrid got cancer from exposure on the job.
"Occupational cancer is one of the leading risks of death in the fire service," Heyer said. "Departments are trying to do as much as they can to make it safer and to have procedures where you get clean as soon as you get to the station. Trevor used to take all those precautions but you can still get cancer because of the things we come in contact with."
Even after 2.5 years on medical leave, Heyer and the entire department still doing anything and everything they can to help, like yard work.
"Well Trevor has done 95% of all the work in his backyard it looks great but we help out where we can," Heyer said. "When he's having physical or medical issues we’ll have a crew over here within seconds so the brotherhood of the fire service has really helped a lot."
There’s also a GoFundMe, meal train, and raffles.
"Right now we’re doing another raffle for a great stay up north 9 nights, 10 days at a big cabin one of our firefighter captains, he donated that and we'll have the drawing for that around Christmas."
If you'd like to enter the raffle, or donate in any way click here.
"Having them be my family and come through on a day-to-day basis like this, there’s no words to describe how thankful I am for them," Madrid said. "Without my brothers and sisters in the fire department, we would have never made it this far."
Madrid makes uplifting videos of his medical journey on social media. His TikTok has garnered 4.2 million likes!
"Honestly it's helped me out as much as it has helped other people out, just moving around, dancing, just inspiring other people having a hard time I want them to know that tomorrow is a new day."
The videos are also educational.
"It was amazing to find out even some doctors didn't know how prevalent cancer is in the fire service so I made it my goal to bring it to light."
You can also follow Madrid and his family on Instagram.
Ultimately he wants to send the following serious message:
"To all the firefighters out there: get checked early, you know if something is wrong with your body, you know if there are red flags."
