Firefighters are used to helping others, but when San Miguel Fire Battalion Chief Richard Durrell's daughter underwent emergency brain surgery and was diagnosed with an incurable form of brain cancer, he felt helpless. Through support from friends, family and the community, the entire family is now ready to fight.
“Seeing her like that, I really thought I was going to lose my daughter that day. I was helpless, scared, angry and wondered, why us?" Chief Durrell said.
Now the father and firefighter who's faced deadly fires is using his medical training as a paramedic to help his 33-year-old daughter, Ashley, in her fight against astrocytoma.
“We’re being really proactive and have already made a lifestyle change. No plastics, no sugars, juicing and organic foods. Just reducing exposures that everyone is exposed to every single day. We’re trying to limit those exposures and get her straight for the fight,” explained Durrell.
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It's a fight they’re determined to win, not only for Ashley’s sake, but for her husband and their two young girls, who like their mother grew up touring the San Miguel Fire Station in Spring Valley.
“We're trying to slow the growth of it down. We’re trying to give her as much time as she can have to see her daughters graduate high school and, preferably, get married," Durrell said.
Though astrocytoma is incurable, it is treatable, so the family set up an online fundraiser for treatments not covered by insurance.
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Now the firefighter who's used to being a problem solver is learning to accept help and support from others.
