Fire & EMS Leader Pro The job of old firefighters is to teach young firefighters how to become old firefighters!
1. Life After Firefighting: The Financial and Social Impacts
Robin Lawson
Robin Lawson medically retired from the Las Vegas (NV) Fire Department in 2006 after 14 years on the job. She is a two-time breast cancer survivor and the first woman firefighter in the USA to win a breast cancer worker’s compensation case related to the job of a firefighter following a six-year journey through the legal system in Nevada.
“But then it happens. I felt that lump in my breast and it was a powerfully rude awaking because we women know that breast cancer is serious business. Too many of us know someone, or know someone who knows someone, who has died from breast cancer. Or had to undergo the removal of one or both of their breasts to stop the disease. Or had to undergo months of radiation and chemo therapy to stop the cancer.
I remember standing there in a state of shock, disbelief, and with my life’s memories flashing before my eyes! Financially speaking? I wasn’t even thinking about that. It was the furthest thing from my mind. At least until much later.”
