By Gayla Cawley
Boston Herald
BOSTON — Mayor Michelle Wu said the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute will contribute $150,000 to the city to provide early detection cancer screening to 500 Boston firefighters after federal funding cuts threatened to derail the program.
Wu’s announcement on Tuesday came after a week of Boston fire officials and city councilors raising the alarm over a lack of funding for firefighter cancer screening in the $4.9 billion city budget the mayor has proposed for next fiscal year.
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The mayor said Dana-Farber first partnered with the Boston Fire Cancer Foundation in 2024 to provide early detection cancer screening, but the program was put at risk this year after the federal government rejected the city’s firefighter wellness grant application, which fire officials put at $1.4 million last week.
“This program has been game-changing — and life-changing — for our firefighters,” Wu wrote on social media. “But not everyone understands that. As federal officials scoff at the needs of working Americans, they have pulled back essential funding for the health and wellness services that keep our firefighters safe.
“But in Boston, we know better — and we do better,” the mayor added. “Through this new initiative, Dana-Farber will support screening protocols for hundreds of firefighters across Boston — helping us increase the chances of catching a cancer diagnosis early, delivering the resources and support needed to fight it, and making sure our firefighters know we will always have their back, just as they have ours.”
Wu’s office said the funding will provide screening for 500 firefighters. More than 1,500 firefighters are employed by the Boston Fire Department, its union has said.
Boston Fire Commissioner Rodney Marshall said recent early detection screening for roughly 1,500 firefighters revealed 637 high-risk cases, including, but not limited to aortic aneurysms; cancerous polyps and nodules on the trachea, thyroid and lungs; prostate cancer and lung cancer.
“Firefighters serve in unpredictable high-risk environments that expose them to carcinogens, extreme heat, toxic smoke, and intense physical and psychological stress,” Marshall said at a press conference held at the Dana-Farber Cancer Center in Fenway. “These hazards increase the risk of cancer, cardiovascular disease, respiratory conditions, and mental health concerns.
“Occupational cancers and cardiac events are the leading causes of line-of-duty deaths,” Marshall added. “Early identification may prevent these deaths.”
Boston Firefighter Dan Ranahan shared a story, for example, about how he was diagnosed with stage 4 Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma, a type of blood cancer, when he was just 30 years old. He said had gone to the doctor thinking he had a cold.
“I went from being the firefighter helping others, to becoming the patient, wondering if I would survive long enough to see my future,” Ranahan said. “That diagnosis changed me forever, changed my family forever, and opened my eyes to how many firefighters around me were quietly fighting the very same battle.”
Ranahan said he founded the Boston Fire Cancer Foundation after his diagnosis, “because I knew we could not continue accepting this reality as simply part of the job.”
“Firefighters are willing to risk everything to protect this city,” Ranahan said, “but they should never have to fight for access to life-saving cancer screenings and care.”
Councilors Sharon Durkan, who represents Fenway, and Ben Weber, the Council’s budget committee chair, joined Wu for the day’s announcement and were credited by the mayor for helping to set the new funding partnership into motion.
Not invited were Councilors and Wu critics Ed Flynn and Erin Murphy, who filed a hearing order this week ahead of the announcement calling for the mayor to immediately restore funding for firefighter cancer screening in the city budget.
Flynn and Murphy began calling attention to the budget cut at a Council hearing for the fire department budget last week.
Durkan had blocked the hearing order from consideration when it was put forward as a late-file by Murphy and Flynn at last week’s Council meeting.
Flynn told the Herald Tuesday evening he “strongly” supports the day’s funding announcement and thanked the Boston firefighters union and Dana-Farber “for making this possible.”
“Our firefighters and their families earned our respect,” Flynn said. “It’s important for Boston to provide firefighters and their families with exceptional health and wellness programs and ongoing screening for cancer.”
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