For The Third Time In Seven Years, Local Firefighter Is Battling Cancer Again

The phrase fight like a 'Boss' has special meaning for one Southern Minnesota community. The Land Between the Lakes, Albert Lea, is once again beginning to rally around one of their own as a firefighter is battling cancer once again. It's the third time in seven years that Albert Lea Fire Rescue Leutenient Brett Boss has battled cancer, and he along with the community are looking for another big win. But that's what happens when you fight like a 'Boss'.

Boss' co-workers at Albert Lea Fire Rescue, have been selling the 'Fight Like A Boss' coins as a way to assist Boss with his medical bills, and with other costs being incurred by his family while he fights cancer again.

Boss recently was awarded a $3,000 gift to assist with his medical bills from the F.I.R.E cancer foundation. It's an organization that "helps firefighters and their families during a time that they need it the most when they've been diagnosed with cancer." The gift Boss received recently was made in the memory of Chuck Brynteson, former Assistant Chief of the Minneapolis Fire Department, by Chuck's wife Tiffany.

Boss is a familiar face and voice for cancer awareness for first responders in Minnesota, as his story has been shared on the Legislative floor of both the Minnesota House and Senate, and nationally as Minnesota Senator Amy Klobuchar toured the Albert Lea Fire Department in 2018 after the Firefighter Cancer Registry Act was passed, requiring "the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to develop and maintain a voluntary registry of firefighters in order to collect history and occupational information that can be used to determine the incidence of cancer among firefighters."

According to Firefighter Cancer Support's website "Firefighters have a 9 percent higher risk of being diagnosed with cancer and a 14 percent higher risk of dying from cancer than the general U.S. population, according to research by the CDC/National Institute for Occupational Health and Safety (NIOSH)."