NH Governor Signing Firefighter Cancer Law

July 09 -- Portsmouth Fire Lt. Russ Osgood was next to firefighter Sarah Fox the day she died from cancer at Concord Hospital when he learned another fire brother, Jeff Bokum, had the disease as well.

The toll Osgood faced in that moment at the hospital was emotional, but a financial one came shortly after. Osgood and firefighters worked to raise thousands of dollars for Bokum's out-of-pocket costs during his six-month battle as they had for Fox in the months before her death, cancer benefits not yet covered for fighters.

Tuesday will bring the passage of a law funding cancer treatment benefits Bokum and Fox went without before they died within a five-month span. Gov. Chris Sununu will come to Portsmouth Fire Department at 10:30 a.m. that morning to sign a bill making the funding law.

"It's a great place to sign the bill," Osgood said. "I think Sarah's family will feel that way, too. And Jeff's."

The bill will allow firefighter cancer treatment benefits to be funded through worker's compensation as no funding mechanism was previously established by the Legislature. It's passage will come 28 years after a law establishing a presumptive cancer law for firefighters was ruled unconstitutional because it lacked a funding mechanism, leaving firefighters with cancer to pay many costs out of pocket.

Fox, who was 40 when she died, was the second female firefighter hired by the department in 2000. She was diagnosed in 2007 with breast cancer and retired in June 2011 when it was determined her cancer was inoperable.

Bokum was a 9½-year veteran of the Fire Department. He died in May 2012 at age 39 after a six-month battle with neuroendocrine cancer, a rare form of cancer that affected his liver and thyroid. It was Bokum who replaced Fox on her shift when Fox switched to light duty, said Portsmouth fire Capt. Bill McQuillen, who served with both.

McQuillen, also president of the Professional Fire Fighters of New Hampshire, says firefighters had previously advocated for funding in Concord for years without success. He said the signing of the bill Tuesday is meaningful not only to Portsmouth firefighters but to firefighters across the state, whose losses to cancer have also included Kyle Jameson of Hampton in 2016.

"It's going to be a great day for the fire service and the state of New Hampshire," McQuillen said.

Osgood said it was overwhelming to learn Bokum was going to battle cancer hours before Fox died from her own. A group of firefighters had gone to see Bokum in Hanover that day, while Osgood went to be by Fox's bedside with her family.

"The first thing was like, 'Oh God, not again,'" Osgood said. "How do you reconcile that you've got two folks, one is beginning (their fight), one is ending?"

Osgood said both the Bokum and Fox families struggled with finances as they worked to pay for treatment. Bokum went to MD Anderson Center in Houston, Texas, where Osgood said he paid for for expensive treatment not covered by insurance on top of the cost of living in his temporary home.

Fox was raising three children, including two young twins, and was unable to contribute to her family's business, which strapped the family, Osgood said. She also used all of her vacation time to deal with her treatment, and when she ran out, firefighters worked to swap shifts to help her. The creation of a leave bank for firefighters to donate leave time for other employees to use was also inspired by Fox.

"To not know what your future's going to be, that plays on you," Fox had said in an interview about her fight with cancer. "That's a tough thing to go through."

Osgood said firefighters raised more than $100,000 over the course of a year and a half for Bokum and Fox. About 500 motorcyclists raised $25,000 in 2010 for the first annual Sarah's Ride, which continues to this day. Donations big and small were received, from the "large chunk" Osgood recalled coming from the firefighting gear company Globe Manufacturing to the $5 donations from lemonade stands run by kids.

Still, Osgood said firefighters were well aware other states offered cancer benefits to firefighters and were frustrated that so much work was needed to pay for illness deemed work-related under law. McQuillen said both would have been covered under the funding being passed into law Tuesday.

"It was wonderful to see (community support), but if it's work related, we shouldn't have to have bake sales and motorcycle rides to help these families out," Osgood said.

While losing Fox and Bokum was devastating for their fellow firefighters, Osgood said their stories created awareness of firefighter cancer at a time when fewer people knew of their heightened risk. Firefighters have a 9 percent higher risk of being diagnosed with cancer and 14 percent higher risk of dying from cancer than the general U.S. population, according to the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health.

Osgood said stories of Fox, Bokum and Jameson, and other firefighters who have died statewide, accelerated the growth in attention the public is paying to the risk of cancer in the fire industry.

"It was a tragic story," he said, "but it made people listen."

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