A group of local firefighters is working to bring awareness to a lesser-known, but deadly, form of cancer.
North Jefferson went pink in October as the community hosted numerous events to raise funds for breast cancer research during Breast Cancer Awareness Month.
Bryan Powell, a captain in the Fultondale Fire Department, got an idea from that to raise awareness for pancreatic cancer. The disease devastated his family in 2007 when his wife’s grandfather, Bill Brock, died of the disease.
Brock was a firefighter with the Gardendale Fire Department from about 1970 to 2003. He served as fire chief from 1974 to 1978, according to Gardendale Fire Chief Clint Doss.
Powell and his family saw first-hand how quickly pancreatic cancer can affect a person.
“I was cutting trees and grass with him in March, April and May,” Powell said. “He died in October.”
Brock’s family all called him Papa, Powell said.
“My Papa, he was just one of those folks,” said Powell. “He did so much for the city of Gardendale. He was one of those larger-than-life kind of guys. I just wanted to do something to honor him.”
One way Powell and his wife Julianne honored their grandfather was by naming their son Brock after him. Brock Powell is 1.
For Pancreatic Cancer Awareness Month, which is November, Powell ordered T-shirts for the firefighters to wear. The front of the shirts have the Fultondale Fire Department logo and the back states, “Fultondale Fire Rescue,” with the purple ribbon for pancreatic cancer.
The department is not selling the shirts this year; the goal right now is to just raise awareness.
“Next year we might sell them; we’ll do bigger and better,” Powell said.
According to the Pancreatic Cancer Action Network, pancreatic cancer is the fourth leading cause of cancer death in the U.S.; almost 38,000 people will likely die from the disease this year.