By Marie Kriedman
The Dayton Daily News
FAIRBORN, Ohio — Members of the Fairborn Fire Department will participate in Breast Cancer Awareness month and support their chaplain, Ruth Paulus, who has breast cancer.
Department members will wear pink T-shirts while on duty to support Paulus, 58, who has volunteered as chaplain for two years.
Lt. Mike Kincaid spearheaded the effort.
“We hope to increase awareness of breast cancer and any type of cancer,” Kincaid said. “Be checked and be checked often. It’s a simple reminder for cancer screenings.”
Kincaid and Paulus have known each other four years.
“I am the chaplain to the best fire department in the whole world. They all know that I love them,” she said. “I was totally surprised by this whole thing. The first I knew about it was when they gave me my T-shirt.”
Paulus has served as the rector of St. Christopher’s Episcopal Church, 1501 N. Broad St., in Fairborn since 2005.
She is also a registered nurse, and worked with her husband, Dr. Richard Paulus, for 25 years.
“Until I had cancer, I did not know the tremendous volume of people being treated for cancer each and every day,” Paulus said. “You don’t realize the gravity of it all. ... This means a great amount to me; they couldn’t have done anything better.”
Paulus is receiving chemotherapy treatments. She does not know her prognosis.
“I haven’t asked because I don’t want to feel like a statistic,” Paulus said. “Statistics and prognosis is kind of relative. And I intend to beat it; I have cancer but it doesn’t have me.”
Copyright 2012 Dayton Newspapers, Inc.