Former La. Safety Chief Makes Cancer Prevention His New Mission

Sandy Davis is a big man with a booming voice and even bigger heart of gold. After 26 years with the Shreveport, La., Fire Department and as safety officer, Davis retired at age 50 and enjoyed working in Louisiana’s Department of Homeland Security’s Emergency Management. Two and a half years ago, however, Davis was diagnosed with colorectal cancer and firmly believes the diagnosis has given him a new mission in life: increasing firefighter awareness to wear PPE every time.

Davis approached John Phelan, a Shreveport firefighter, and asked him to help produce a video for firefighters about the importance of wearing their personal protective equipment (PPE). Just under six minutes, the video, “Wear your PPE…Ret. Chief Sandy Davis and His Story of Cancer” was released yesterday.

Davis has already had completed 12 rounds of chemotherapy and this week finished his second round of chemotherapy treatments and the fatigue that comes with each treatment.

“You think you know what it’s like to be fatigued or tired, but with this kind of tired you can’t get out of bed for three days,” said Davis. “Then it starts getting better.”

Davis believes that the increase of heart attacks and cancer among firefighters is definitely job related.

“We didn’t used to think it was job related. If a building didn’t fall on you or fell off a tailboard, it wasn’t job related,” said Davis. “Over the past 20 years we have come to realize we are exposed to toxins and combustion in the air and it is job related.”

Davis is former chairman of the Fire Department Safety Officers Association and believes that the role of safety officer has changed too.

“It’s up to the safety officer to ask, ‘What is working in the atmosphere that is going to silently kill firefighters 20 to 40 years from now?’” He added, “Wear that SCBA till the building is cold because of the combustion in the air.”

“The colostomy bag is my PPE now,” said Davis. He said many nights he has lie awake and wondered, “If I had worn my turnout gear, would I have prevented my colon cancer?”

But Davis is a man with a strong Christian faith and a commit to save other firefighters—and their families--from what he has gone thru.

“If you never smoked a cigarette or drank, you couldn’t talk about the experience. I can talk about cancer and the treatments and it has given me the ability to influence other people,” said Davis. “I believe that is the reason that I was allowed to have this experience,” said Davis. “Probably anybody hearing me say that would think I was crazy, but I really believe this.”

At the end of the video, Sandy and his wife, Patty, are surrounded by their children and grandchildren. Davis states, “If you’re not going to wear your PPE for you, wear it for them.”

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