Firefighter's fight with lymphoma fuels passion for stair climb

Dylan Browning’s Silver Valley roots go deep. After getting a job at Northern Lakes Fire Protection District last year, he still volunteers as a firefighter in Shoshone County. 

Joined by fellow North Idaho firefighters on Sunday, he put his body through its paces as part of the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society Firefighter Stair Climb in Seattle. 

Browning, who hails from the valley, wore "Live for Viv" gear to honor 2-year-old Vivian Bourgard, who was diagnosed with leukemia in January. 

But rather than climb with the Northern Lakes or Shoshone County firefighters, he climbed as a member of the survivor’s battalion. 

Browning’s diagnosis began like any other day as a college student. 

“I was 20, perfectly fine and healthy. I was actually in fire academy at North Idaho College to become a firefighter, and I woke up one morning and was in severe abdominal pain,” Browning said. 

He was living with his mom and stepdad in Osburn at the time and was lying on the couch, willing the pain to get better, but it wasn’t going away. 

Browning's family took him to Shoshone Medical Center, where an appendectomy yielded relief but also unexpected medical results. 

When he went into the office a week after his surgery, instead of walking out with his medical release, he was diagnosed with Burkitt’s lymphoma. 

“I started my journey of about a year of chemo. About a week later, I had to stop fire academy training and went through about seven cycles of chemotherapy,” Browning said. 

After about nine months of treatment, 15 spinal taps and three bone marrow biopsies, he was able to return to his life, eventually working at Hecla Mining and as a Shoshone County firefighter. 

During his treatments, the cancer targeted his blood. Browning needed 38 liters of blood and 28 liters of platelets to keep going. 

“It was a pretty wild ride,” he said. “A lot of people don’t know that a lot of blood cancer patients and chemo patients need blood.” 

Medical experts called it a “saving grace” that his cancer was caught so early and in such an unusual way. 

“The doctors from the Mayo Clinic said they’ve never found it in the appendix like they found mine,” Browning said. 

As news of support for Vivian poured through the Valley’s basketball community, Browning reached out to Vivian’s mother to see if it would be all right to represent her in the climb in Seattle. 

Total donations for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society stair climb are at $2 million out of their $3 million goal.   

“It just took a natural path. Firemen are really good at collecting donations and fundraising. It’s just kind of who we are and what we do,” Browning said. “This is literally why we climb.”  

He estimated that his Kootenai County team brought in about $4,000, and Shoshone County firefighters calculated they brought in about $1,500 for their first year participating in the event. 

As a survivor, Browning was able to bring his wife, Gretchen Browning, to the top of the Columbia Center for the conclusion of the climb. 

The climb covered 69 floors, 1,356 steps and a 788-foot increase in elevation. 

“I’ve gone through quite a bit myself and I’ll do this for the rest of my life,” Browning said of the climb and his experiences with blood cancer. “Serving people is a passion of mine; that’s why I became a firefighter.” 

    Dan Parrish of Northern Lakes Fire Protection District, Fire Chief John Miller of Shoshone Fire No. 1 Firefighters and volunteer firefighter Jeff Littlefield wear their "Live for Viv" gear at the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society Firefighter Stair Climb Sunday.
  

    Firefighters from the Silver Valley wore helmet shields honoring "Vivacious Viv" for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society Firefighter Stair Climb on Sunday in Seattle. Two-year-old Vivian Bourgard lives in Shoshone County and was diagnosed with leukemia in January.