Mikey Riley has been with the Asheville Fire Department for just over 15 years. Just within the past few years of his time there, Riley said he’s been personally impacted by the loss of active and retired firefighters due to occupational cancer.The Asheville Fire Department has lost four active members in the last four to five years due to occupational cancer, according to Riley, which he plans to use as motivation on Saturday, April 22.”Unless we do something about it there’s going to be a number five and six over the next couple of years,” Riley said. “So we want to do everything we can to decrease those numbers and not have this continue. I’m going to run for 24 hours. I’ve run 12 or 13 hours before, but 24 hours is going to be a different beast.”Riley will be running alongside other firefighters and members of the community in a run to raise money for the North Carolina Firefighter Cancer Alliance fund dedicated to offsetting the costs of firefighter cancer screenings. The fund was launched earlier this year as part of a greater initiative to target firefighters who have received a cancer diagnosis along with their families, or those who may be unsuspecting of the disease.However, Riley will be the only one running for a full 24 hours. “I’m going to go out to the river and follow the river down to the taco shop,” Riley said. “It’s about four miles away, and I’m going to turn around and come back. I’ll do that over and over again.”The run will start at 9 a.m. Saturday at Carrier Park in Asheville and will end at the same location 24 hours later on Sunday.”I know how tired I’m going to be,” Riley said. “I know how bad it’s going to hurt. Four miles an hour is kind of what I would like to max things out at. I’m going to want it to be over. It’s also going to be really emotional. I’m going to have Jeff Lyons, Dewayne Fender, Karen Shuart, Will Willis with me the whole time.”Cancer is a leading cause of death among firefighters, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Scott Mullins, President of both the Asheville Firefighters Association and the Professional Firefighters and Paramedics Association of North Carolina, said ensuring firefighters have access to cancer screenings without having to come out of pocket is vital. “Jeff was a captain at our department and his dying request was that the money, instead of going toward flowers or anything else, it would go toward cancer screenings,” Mullins said.Mullins added that sometimes firefighters can’t afford the hefty costs, which can hit a few thousand dollars without the help of local organizations or cities stepping in to offer financial assistance.“Asheville was the first city to start doing the cancer screenings in North Carolina,” Mullins said. “Recently we had 89 firefighters come out of pocket to pay for their screenings which they had to pay a few hundred bucks for out of pocket. Our organization paid for the other half. There were 17 high actual findings. They weren’t just cancer. There were other serious findings, but there were some cancer diagnoses that did come out of that.”Mullins said organizations like the ones he’s involved with are actively working toward more permanent legislation to help prevent occupational cancer as well as classify all types of cancers in the state of North Carolina, not just some, as the line of duty deaths.According to the North Carolina Firefighter Cancer Alliance:”Riley has undertaken such grueling runs before. In 2018, after Will Willis died on his 34th birthday, Riley ran 50K uphill to Ebbs Chapel Fire Department where Willis worked. He naturally then ran 50K back down to Asheville to Station 6 where Willis last worked as an Engineer. Firefighters are diagnosed with cancer at a 9% higher rate than the general population and die of cancer at a 14% higher rate.”Riley said he only plans to take small breaks to either use the bathroom, change clothes several times if it rains heavily, and eat quick meals for fuel.Riley encourages everyone to show up at Carrier Park to either cheer him on or run with him at some point during the 24-hour period.If you’d like to donate to the North Carolina Firefighter Cancer Alliance fund, click here.
Mikey Riley has been with the Asheville Fire Department for just over 15 years. Just within the past few years of his time there, Riley said he’s been personally impacted by the loss of active and retired firefighters due to occupational cancer.
The Asheville Fire Department has lost four active members in the last four to five years due to occupational cancer, according to Riley, which he plans to use as motivation on Saturday, April 22.
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“Unless we do something about it there’s going to be a number five and six over the next couple of years,” Riley said. “So we want to do everything we can to decrease those numbers and not have this continue. I’m going to run for 24 hours. I’ve run 12 or 13 hours before, but 24 hours is going to be a different beast.”
Riley will be running alongside other firefighters and members of the community in a run to raise money for the North Carolina Firefighter Cancer Alliance fund dedicated to offsetting the costs of firefighter cancer screenings. The fund was launched earlier this year as part of a greater initiative to target firefighters who have received a cancer diagnosis along with their families, or those who may be unsuspecting of the disease.
However, Riley will be the only one running for a full 24 hours.
“I’m going to go out to the river and follow the river down to the taco shop,” Riley said. “It’s about four miles away, and I’m going to turn around and come back. I’ll do that over and over again.”
The run will start at 9 a.m. Saturday at Carrier Park in Asheville and will end at the same location 24 hours later on Sunday.
“I know how tired I’m going to be,” Riley said. “I know how bad it’s going to hurt. Four miles an hour is kind of what I would like to max things out at. I’m going to want it to be over. It’s also going to be really emotional. I’m going to have Jeff Lyons, Dewayne Fender, Karen Shuart, Will Willis with me the whole time.”
Cancer is a leading cause of death among firefighters, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Scott Mullins, President of both the Asheville Firefighters Association and the Professional Firefighters and Paramedics Association of North Carolina, said ensuring firefighters have access to cancer screenings without having to come out of pocket is vital.
“Jeff [Lyons] was a captain at our department and his dying request was that the money, instead of going toward flowers or anything else, it would go toward cancer screenings,” Mullins said.
Mullins added that sometimes firefighters can’t afford the hefty costs, which can hit a few thousand dollars without the help of local organizations or cities stepping in to offer financial assistance.
“Asheville was the first city to start doing the cancer screenings in North Carolina,” Mullins said. “Recently we had 89 firefighters come out of pocket to pay for their screenings which they had to pay a few hundred bucks for out of pocket. Our organization paid for the other half. There were 17 high actual findings. They weren’t just cancer. There were other serious findings, but there were some cancer diagnoses that did come out of that.”
Mullins said organizations like the ones he’s involved with are actively working toward more permanent legislation to help prevent occupational cancer as well as classify all types of cancers in the state of North Carolina, not just some, as the line of duty deaths.
According to the North Carolina Firefighter Cancer Alliance:
“Riley has undertaken such grueling runs before. In 2018, after Will Willis died on his 34th birthday, Riley ran 50K uphill to Ebbs Chapel Fire Department where Willis worked. He naturally then ran 50K back down to Asheville to Station 6 where Willis last worked as an Engineer. Firefighters are diagnosed with cancer at a 9% higher rate than the general population and die of cancer at a 14% higher rate.”
Riley said he only plans to take small breaks to either use the bathroom, change clothes several times if it rains heavily, and eat quick meals for fuel.
Riley encourages everyone to show up at Carrier Park to either cheer him on or run with him at some point during the 24-hour period.
If you’d like to donate to the North Carolina Firefighter Cancer Alliance fund, click here.