VIDEO: All Colorado firefighters who are diagnosed with breast cancer will now receive benefits from the Colorado Firefighter Heart and Cancer Benefits (CFHCB) Trust, thanks to a Westminster fire lieutenant who appealed the denial of her claim.
“I needed to find the thing that will show them that breast cancer is a firefighter’s disease,” Lt. Tracy Post told 9NEWS. “As exhausted as I was, I knew if I didn’t do it, somebody else was going to have to. I was just frustrated enough at the situation that I was like, well, I’m going to find a way to make this happen.” Post was diagnosed with stage two invasive ductal carcinoma in 2019; a type of breast cancer that forms in the milk duct of a breast and can invade into the surrounding breast tissue.
It is also a type of cancer that is not covered for firefighter benefits in Colorado.
“Quite often we do not know what we do not know,” Westminster Fire Chief Doug Hall told us.