Chesapeake firefighters get shaved for 'Baldathon'

PORTLOCK

Inside Fire Station 2, clumps of hair piled on the floor as firefighter Heather Callahan ran a pair of clippers across her husband's head.

"It's just hair!" someone in the crowd of newly bald firefighters yelled at the couple.

Callahan smiled.

About 125 firefighters and friends gathered at the station Sunday for a "Baldathon" to support Callahan in her fight against breast cancer. She wasn't the first person in the department to have cancer, they said, and she likely wouldn't be the last.

In the past year, a handful of firefighters have undergone cancer treatment. Three firefighters - including Callahan, who went to New York to help during 9/11 - now have cancer, she said.

"Everybody knows somebody fighting cancer," firefighter Pat McCarthy said Sunday. "Heather is just so close to us that it hit us like a ton of bricks."

Callahan remembers hearing the news of her diagnosis in October. She already had a feeling something was wrong. When she went in for a mammogram, a radiologist told her she needed to get a biopsy right away.

"I was in disbelief," the 35-year-old said in early January. "I had no family history. I was told I was too young."

If the biopsy results were good, a member of the office staff would be in touch. A doctor, she was told, is responsible for delivering more somber news.

When her phone finally rang, she heard the doctor's voice.

"Obviously I'm calling, so you know it's not good," the doctor said.

Callahan's colleagues at the fire station were shocked when she told them about her diagnosis. When she had to have surgery, everyone from fire recruits to the deputy fire chief showed up for support, she said.

Sometimes firefighters would arrive at Callahan's doctor's appointments before she did, said Teri Howell, a breast cancer navigator at Chesapeake Regional Medical Center.

Howell could always tell if Callahan was in the building based on the fire trucks parked outside, she said.

While many of the patients Howell works with have supportive families, she said the camaraderie of the fire department is something she has rarely seen.

"This is what can really make a difference for someone's treatment," she said.

A few days before the "Baldathon," Callahan's crew gathered to shave their heads together," McCarthy said.

"All we know is to surround and support her," he said. "I know how tough she is."

The number of people who showed up to support Callahan was amazing, she said.

"The first week of chemo was tough," she said Sunday. "But now I'm feeling good."

Sarah Hutchins, 757-222-5210, sarah.hutchins@pilotonline.com