VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. — Matt Gallina is the picture of good health. The 20-year veteran of the Virginia Beach Fire Department exercises, eats well, and stays active as a husband and father of three.
That's why the news he and his family received in June came as a big surprise: he has cancer.
"At first it was hard because there's no way, it has to be a false positive. I can't imagine. It was insane to think about," said Matt's wife, Michelle.
In a profession plagued with cancer diagnoses, Gallina understands the potential danger. Cancer is the leading cause of death among firefighters.
Earlier this year, the department suffered a blow with the loss of Fire Captain Matt Chiaverotti. He was one of several firefighters diagnosed with cancer who worked the fiery Navy jet crash scene in Virginia Beach in 2012. He passed away from thyroid cancer in April.
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Gallina's diagnosis is one of the first in the department from a brand new screening test, Galleri, offered to firefighters at no cost to them. It can detect up to 50 types of cancers with a single blood test. Firefighters in both Virginia Beach and Chesapeake lined up to get it in the spring.
"Matt's popped up for stomach, esophagus, pancreatic, and gallbladder," Michelle explained. The signals were later confirmed by an oncologist to be esophageal cancer.
"We were all surprised. Matt is a very healthy man, had absolutely no signs or symptoms, so the test did exactly what it's designed to do: catch it early," said Captain Jim Ingledue, Gallina's supervisor in the Fire Marshal's office where he works.
Michelle believes the test saved her husband's life. Securing funding for more screenings is a top priority of the Virginia Professional Fire Fighters (VPFF).
In an email to 13News Now, VPFF legislative director John Wright states the union is "aggressively seeking funding to provide annual cancer screenings for every career firefighter in the Commonwealth." The group is asking Gov. Glenn Youngkin to include money in his budget proposal.
If funding comes through, the union will continue its pursuit to expand the list of presumptive cancers for firefighters to qualify for workers' compensation benefits once they are diagnosed. Leukemia, pancreatic, prostate, rectal, throat, ovarian, breast, colon, brain, testicular, bladder, and thyroid cancers are currently included on the list.
"If it's caused by the job, then the job really needs to pick up that tab and that shouldn't be left up to the individual to figure out through their own health insurance," said Max Gonano, president of Virginia Beach Professional Firefighters.
Gallina is undergoing treatment at MD Anderson in Houston and Michelle shared good news. A PET scan shows Gallina is responding to treatment better than expected. They hope to add him to a clinical trial but so far workers' comp is denying coverage. She tries not to worry about the "what if" but the "what next."