DECATUR, Ga. — Pepter Le has been with DeKalb Fire and Rescue for seven years, battling fires and saving lives, but it’s his battle with cancer that sidelined him.
“I did feel symptoms about a year or two prior to the pain that I ignored because I thought it was due to weightlifting or other physical activities," Le said.
It turns out that those pains Le was feeling were actually Stage 4 colon cancer.
He went through five months of aggressive chemotherapy and then surgery to remove a mass from his liver.
On his very first day back to work this week, he was called out for a house fire.
Le said getting right back to the serious work of saving lives is second nature.
“I would just say it's just like riding a bike. You don’t forget those things you trained on."
Le wants his health journey to be a lesson for others and hopes to save more lives by sharing his health journey.
“Please get checked out, and please catch it early because, as of right now, what I’ve noticed is a lot of young people are getting diagnosed with cancer," Le said.
Firefighters are at higher risk for developing cancer; because of this, DeKalb Fire and Rescue offers free yearly cancer screenings.
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