September 11, 2026

By Mary Beth Gahan

When Assistant Fire Chief Jerry Duffield had his blood drawn last fall, his PSA levels, which show the amount of protein produced by a prostate, were “out of whack.”

He visited a urologist at the urging of his wife and had a biopsy taken. The results showed cancer on 6 of 12 panels.

Additionally, Duffield, 62, used funds from a health savings account to undergo a colonoscopy three years before he was due for another. The previous time, the scan was clean and nothing was found. This time, three polyps were pre-cancerous.

He had his prostrate removed in June and was back to work a few weeks later. Without the screening, he believes he would’ve had stage 3 colon and prostate cancer within two years.

“You're not going to beat both of them at the same time. I wouldn't see 65. I wouldn't see my grandson graduate college,” Duffield said. “This testing, it works.”

The initial blood test was part of a new state mandate that requires municipalities to provide annual occupational cancer screening at no cost to firefighters. Flower Mound was ahead of schedule, mainly because the fire department lost two firefighters to cancer in the past four years, including one whose death inspired the state law.

The fire department is now going further to ensure its members have access to the latest technology for early detection. Even in a year when sales tax revenue is down and not many new items are being added to Flower Mound’s budget, the town council asked to move funding around so more firefighters could take part in advanced screening. That’s on top of the $138,000 the town has already spent on testing.

Cancer is a concern that’s at the top of the list for fire departments around the country.

The leading cause of death for line-of-duty firefighters is occupational cancer, meaning it is caused by carcinogens in the workplace, according to the International Association of Fire Fighters.

“In the last five years especially, this has been a growing concern,” said Fire Chief Paul Henley.

The Flower Mound Fire Department knows how quickly the disease can be fatal.

In 2020, Flower Mound firefighter Wade Cannon was diagnosed with stage four colon cancer. He went through rounds of chemotherapy and encouraged other firefighters to get tested. Two of his colleagues were subsequently diagnosed with colon cancer.

Cannon died on Oct. 1, 2022. He was 33.

Another Flower Mound Firefighter, James Bobbitt, died in December 2024 from esophageal cancer the same year he was diagnosed with it. He was 50 years old and had been with the department since 2007.

In 2025, State Rep. Ben Bumgarner authored House Bill 198, also called the Wade Cannon Act, that went into effect this summer. The law mandates that municipalities provide cost-free occupational cancer screening for firefighters after they’ve been on the job for five years, as well as every year after. The screening includes a blood and urine test, EKG, breast cancer screening, pulmonary function test, and infectious disease test.

Henley wishes the law went further, but said it was a good foundation.

“Now all the departments have to have something, where many times many departments don't have anything,” Henley said.

Last year, before the law went into effect, the town provided $68,000 in funding so all firefighters could have health and wellness physicals that included bloodwork and a CT scan.

“We tried to do everything we could to stretch that penny into a guitar string,” Duffield said.

Henley wanted to do more. He researched and read peer-reviewed journals about the issue. He found Cancerguard, a blood test that detects if a person has cancer currently. Each test costs $650.

Henley moved things around in his budget, including savings from training reimbursements and grants, and used $30,000 to purchase tests for all firefighters over the age of 40.

When the fiscal budget for next year was being discussed, the department put in a request for $79,200 for more tests from Cancerguard, which would cover the rest of the firefighters who weren’t tested the year before.

The request, along with most of the new funding requests from other departments, was not included in the proposed budget by town staff. At a work session in August, town council members said they wanted to fund more tests.

“I don't want to raise the tax rate, so we would have to take from something and give it to that,” Mayor Pro Tem Adam Schiestel said.

They decided on moving $27,000 from new municipal court expenses to fund tests for 41 more firefighters. This time, it’ll be those between 27 and 40 years old who will get their blood drawn. The funding means every firefighter will get an advanced cancer screening every three years, which is “above and beyond” what the bill dictates, Duffield said.

The tests aren’t the only prevention methods the department is using. They’ve changed seats from cloth to materials that can be wiped down, installed air filtration devices in the apparatus, and made sure firefighters are cleaning their gear

“Used to, the badge of honor was the dirtiest gear and the dirtiest helmet,” Henley said. “Now, that's changed. We want sparkly clean.”

Flower Mound firefighters are also taking the issue to the state level. While Cannon’s colon cancer was considered presumptive, or caused by the job, Bobbitt’s esophageal cancer was not.

There are 11 presumptive cancers for firefighters in Texas and those who are diagnosed with them are eligible for worker’s compensation and disability.

There have been changes on the federal level with attention brought by the International Association of Fire Fighters. Sam Thrash, president of the Flower Mound Professional Firefighters Association, is pushing the Lone Star State to do more, like recognize esophageal cancer as one caused by the job of fighting fires.

“The State of Texas is still behind and that needs to change,” Thrash said.  “That’s a long and tedious fight at the state level.”

After Bobbitt died in December 2024, Town Manager James Childers worked with Chief Henley to provide esophagus testing for all firefighters who wanted it. It wasn’t a comfortable test, but about 50 of them did it.

Henley said he no longer has to remind the firefighters to wash their gear or do other preventative actions like medical appointments for checkups.

“The brightest spot is Wade's legacy continues to live on, as does James’s,” Henley said. “Because of the pain that these guys have gone through and the sacrifices that were made by these two Individuals, it helps make this part of our culture.”