Thurston County Commissioner and former Tenino Mayor Wayne Fournier on Saturday announced he is undergoing treatment for cancer.
Fournier used the announcement as an opportunity to urge support for Bucoda Mayor Rob Gordon, who late last year was diagnosed with a malignant neoplasm of the stomach and metastatic liver disease, or in other words, stage 4 stomach cancer that has spread to his liver.
Fournier and Gordon have both worked as firefighters, with Fournier doing so as a career, and Gordon serving as a volunteer. Gordon started before he turned 16. Fournier began at 18.
During the summer, Fournier noticed a mass below his jaw and decided to investigate it, he wrote.
”Hesitantly, I kept quiet until now, wanting to spare my dad while he navigated his own battle with Merkel cell carcinoma and avoid rushing into sharing without proper understanding,” Fournier wrote. “I have been diagnosed with a skin cancer, predominantly in the form of an extensive lymphovascular invasion. It sounds scary, but I’m assured that it is treatable. The treatment is rough. I’m currently undergoing weekly chemotherapy and radiation. I’m told that everyone reacts differently to this process and the side effects it comes with. Thankfully, my youth, health and resolve give me the edge in this fight.”
Fournier noted he is supported by the International Association of Fire Fighters and the Washington State Council of Fire Fighters through systems unavailable to Gordon as a volunteer.
Gordon and his wife have two children, Jakob, 8, and Anna, 7. In addition to still carrying out his mayoral duties, he is a volunteer firefighter, truck driver and ranch owner.
“His battle with cancer, from his lifetime of exposure to the same threats I faced, is far more serious,” Fournier wrote. “Without the same safeguards, Rob and his family are facing some significant challenges. Rob has supported his family through his ability to farm and run his trucking equipment. Stage 4 stomach cancer has taken that away from him, and as a volunteer firefighter, workers comp or presumptive illness claims are not an option for him. He has to take this sentence on the chin and still support his family.”
Exposure to chemicals, trauma and disease take years off the lives of many firefighters, Fournier wrote.
“It can break you mentally and physically, and it can give you cancer at a young age,” Fournier wrote. “Last night, I couldn’t sleep. I found myself reflecting on my fire service career and it dawned on me that many of my initial fire service instructors were taken to the grave early, predominantly by suicide and cancer. It’s a heartbreaking consequence of their chosen path of service and sacrifice.”
Fournier said the main reason he announced his diagnosis was to draw support for Gordon and his family. A GoFundMe.com page is available at http://tinyurl.com/bdzddmdm.
“Rob and I both got into a life of public service because we love our community and want to do whatever we can to help it,” Fournier wrote. “As I have gone through this experience, I have been reminded of why I love this place. The support and excitement to help that everyone around me has offered has been truly humbling.”
Fournier won a race for a new seat on the board of Thurston county commissioners last November after serving as mayor of Tenino.
Gordon took over as the mayor of Bucoda at the end of 2022 following former Mayor Steven Purcell’s resignation due to his non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma returning.
