Chapel Hill firefighter brotherhood encircles husband, wife after cancer diagnoses

In January, Lambert was diagnosed with cancer. His diagnosis came just months after his wife heard similar bad news.

"She got diagnosed in October," he said. "I got diagnosed in January.

"I felt a knot in my right leg after Christmas and then went to Duke (University Hospital), and that's when they found it."

Lambert, 43, had surgery to remove it and was soon back behind the wheel as a driver for the Chapel Hill Fire Department.

"As long as the meds work, we're good," he said.

He had to work to support his two boys and wife, Tracy.

A few weeks ago, after 14 years of marriage, her fight with pancreatic cancer ended.

"It's been pretty tough," he said. "She was strong-willed and so have I been. We've got our own sense of humor, and that's what's gotten us through."

Asked to share a photo of Tracy, he demurred, preferring to keep that private.

There was no fighting the grief, though Jimmy Lambert is a fighter.

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"I keep fighting for them," he said. They are his boys, 8 and 13, who he's raising as a widowed father.

He's not going it alone.

"When it's times like this, you actually see the brotherhood come together," said Capt. Rick Cherry.

He and his fellow firefighters have rallied around their brother in distress.

"Just being a friend, mowing his grass for him, lining things up," Cherry said.

They are also working on a fundraiser for the Lamberts, scheduled for Nov. 1 from 6 to 8 p.m. at the Chapel Hill firehouse at 140 W. Franklin St. All money raised at the First Annual Orange County Firefighters Bash Against Cancer will go to Jimmy Lambert and his family.

In recent weeks, Jimmy Lambert hasn't been able to work; the cancer has spread elsewhere in his body. But Chief Matthew Sullivan says he is still very much in the driver's seat.

"He and Tracy have been incredible examples in their fight," Sullivan said, "and Jimmy is one of my heroes. The way they've approached the situation with joy and perseverance."

Lambert has not been on the job in recent weeks because the cancer has metastasized. He undergoes chemotherapy every three weeks at Duke.

"I point no blame on anybody," Lambert said. "You get dealt with what you get dealt and that's how we've looked at it since all this started."

His department has rallied around him and is pushing for changes to help prevent cancer among firefighters.

Cherry said he'd like to see washers for clothes and turnout gear at all fire stations to remove toxins that could make firefighters sick.

"The problem now is cancer," says Phillip Nasseri, training coordinator for the Chapel Hill Fire Department. "It's not dying in the fires, we're dying from complications of the fires."

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