Firefighter Stephen “Shak
ey” Vanravenswaay, a 1990 graduate of Wayland High School, is getting a lot of support lately from his firefighting brethren in Orange County, Fla.
VanRavenswaay, a firefighter for the past 19 years, was diagnosed with Stage IV pancreatic cancer Feb. 25, though he has no family history of cancer and thought little about the pain in his stomach as nothing severe.
He was told by doctors that the cancer had spread to his liver.
His case brings to light the disturbing statistic that firefighters somehow are diagnosed at a rate 9 percent higher than the general population and 14 percent are more like to die.
Researchers have found that the more time they spend responding to fires, the more likely they are to be diagnosed.
With help from Orange County Fire Rescue members, Vanravenswaay’s family has raised at least $20,000 through GoFundMe.
Vanravenswaay, now 42 years old, has a wife, Lisa, and two daughters, who are 14 and 17.
The Orlando Sentinel, in a feature story, reported his fellow firefighters have been a constant help, mowing his lawn, picking up his shifts and cooking the occasional dinner.
“I know not everybody gets this kind of support,” Vanravenswaay told the Sentinel. “Because, let’s face it, people have their own lives, and they have their own families. And there’s only so much they can do. And if the state was willing to step up, I think it would take a lot of burden off the families, as well as the Fire Department families.”
More than 30 states have a cancer presumption for firefighters, which allows them to file workers compensation claims for cancer. Florida is not among them. Workers compensation could help firefighters get lost wages and help with medical costs. But legislation likely has little chance for passage.
The money could come from a state trust fund or from workers compensation insurance.
The Sentinel noted that firefighters are twice as likely as the general population to die of mesothelioma, a rare cancer of the lung lining associated with asbestos exposure, said Thomas Hales, a senior medical epidemiologist with the CDC. The numbers in the study were adjusted for age, race and gender, as firefighters studied were mostly white males.
Their rates of esophageal cancer are 62 percent higher than average, and they are 39 percent more likely to die of it, Hales said. They also have higher instances of cancers in the oral cavities, intestines, kidneys and lungs.
Vanravenswaay, according to the Sentinel, decided to become a firefighter after he served with the Air Force in California. He spent two years with Volusia County Fire Rescue, then decided to move to Orange County Fire Rescue.
Early in his career, he got the nickname “Shakey” on a medical call, when his knee started shaking as he struggled to keep a restaurant cook who accidentally cut herself and fainted off the floor. Nobody in the Fire Department calls him anything else.
“I love the job, I love the people,” Vanravenswaay told the newspaper. “If somebody asked me, would you [with] what I know now, would I join the Fire Department again? Absolutely.”
Since he stopped working in February, Vanravenswaay has been using up his paid time off. To qualify for short-term disability, he will have to stop swapping shifts and spend 90 days getting 13 percent of his regular salary. On short-term disability, he’ll get 40 percent to 60 percent of his regular pay. If it comes to that, the family will dip into the $20,000 GoFundMe account.
On his cancer support fund web site, it says, “Shakey, as his friends and family love to call him, has spent the last 19 years committed to his fellow brothers and sisters in the fire service and in service to the public as a firefighter and special operations technician.
It’s now our turn to give the support he and his family needs to stay strong and focused in a very personal and long fight.
“Know that your brothers and sisters in the fire service and community refuse to let you fight this battle alone. SHAKE AND BAKE.”
PHOTO: Stephen “Shakey” Vanravenswaay (seated), with some of his firefighting brothers and sisters and his wife, Lisa, (behind him).
