Teen cancer patient pays forward Make-A-Wish donation to local fire department

When the Make-A-Wish Foundation offered Gerry McAdam anything he wanted he didn’t know what to do.

The 16-year-old from Hemmingford, Que. is battling sarcoma, a rare form of tissue cancer.

Instead of using his wish for himself, he decided to pay it forward.

His dream is to build a firefighting training centre in the town of 2,000 residents about an hour south of Montreal.

“This is not a normal wish,” Quebec chapter spokesperson Lauren Donnelly told CTV. “This is so special and I think Gerry should be recognized for his benevolence towards others.”

Since he was young, Gerry was fascinated by firefighting.

“I started training with the rookies,” he told CTV, “but before that I was going on calls with my dad when I was a kid.”

His father, Chris McAdam, pulls up a photo on his phone. It’s Gerry at four years old dressed as a firefighter for Halloween.

“He refused to take it off,” said Chris. “He was walking around for a few days in that outfit.”

In a video, nine-year-old Gerry is trying to break his first car window, which is standard practice for car crash responses.

Now Gerry’s part of the station’s service crew and is mostly responsible for pulling hoses and finding tools.

“Under here is 200 feet of hose,” he said, while opening a hidden panel on a truck. “This is where we keep spare nozzles and couplings.”

Behind the station a small blue sign shows where the future training site will be. Having a new centre in Hemmingford would ensure rookies don’t have to drive upwards of an hour to learn new skills.

“It’s something that the community needs,” his father said. “We don’t have availability to do a lot of training around here. So, I’m proud that he’s willing and generous enough to do it.”

“It’s mostly for search and rescue,” said fire chief Neil Lamb. “You can learn your ventilation techniques and how to enter buildings.”

The estimated cost of a new training site is around $80,000.

The Make-A-Wish foundation is donating $8,000 and helping fundraise. Donnelly said that a group of firefighters from Halifax, NS have already joined in the effort and sent money.

Gerry is on his third year of chemotherapy treatments, but his parents say it hasn’t dulled his resolve.

“He hasn’t slowed down at all, if anything he’s probably sped up,” said his father. “He’s always got something on the go.”

Lamb said McAdam’s generosity blows him away.

“He could have done other stuff for himself. To turn it over, to help us, the fire service and the communities around is amazing.”