Curtis Beery plans to follow in the footsteps of his mother and father as firefighters on the Olympic Peninsula despite battling cancer.
Curtis graduated from Sequim High School on June 9 and like many 18-year-olds is excited to start the next chapter of his life pursuing a career in firefighting.
He was diagnosed with Hodgkin lymphoma Stage IVB in May and has been a patient at Seattle Children’s Hospital where he is undergoing chemotherapy treatments.
He said he was working landscaping and logging when he noticed his back starting hurting.
“I didn’t expect it to turn out to be cancer,” Curtis said.
When he first had the back pain checked out at a walk-in clinic on the peninsula, doctors suggested it was cancer. His mother Jody Beery said it was almost a month of back and forth determining the diagnosis.
“I was furious that they would even say that,” Jody said, but admitted the walk-in clinic got the ball rolling in discovering it was cancer.
With more tests and follow-ups, Curtis said he finally got the phone call from Seattle Children’s Hospital confirming his diagnosis.
“I was asleep and I woke up to the phone call,” Curtis said.
The doctors confirmed Curtis has Hodgkin lymphoma Stage IVB on May 12.
As Curtis explained, Stage IVB means the cancer has spread past his lymph system and into his bones.
“What makes it Stage IV is that it’s in the bone,” he said.
He just completed his first round of chemotherapy and has five more rounds of treatment for an estimated 4-6 months depending on his condition during treatment and if he needs radiation.
While Stage IVB is advanced, Curtis said the cancer is curable. “It’s going to suck for a while, but it also brought me down to earth,” he said.
Humble beginnings
Curtis was born in Wyoming and lived in California for seven years before moving back to the Olympic Peninsula for his sophomore year of high school. He considers Sequim his home.
“I’ve always been a Washington kid,” Curtis said.
His goal is to become a firefighter/paramedic and he has been in an Explorers Program — a program that provides young men and women an opportunity to learn about the fire service — for a year and a half.
His mother Jody and father Mike Beery also met in an Explorers Program.
“We met in Explorers and we both worked in Antarctica together as firefighters,” Jody said.
She was a firefighter for several years and both she and Mike volunteered in Clallam County and in Colorado and worked a paid job in Antarctica.
Curtis’ father Mike worked as a firefighter for East Jefferson County before he died from a fall while ascending Mount Rainier in 2005. Curtis was 6 at the time and Brynn was 3.
Mike Beery was a member of the Clallam County Fire District 3 Fire Explorers program and worked in Wyoming and Sequim as a firefighter/EMT before he was hired in 2000 as a firefighter for Jefferson Fire Rescue 1.
Curtis said he wants to start out volunteer firefighting and plans to attend Peninsula College to get the college credits he needs done.
“I’ve always wanted to be a scientist or something,” Curtis said.
“But as I got older, knowing a lot of firefighters I just loved the community and the people and it just seems perfect,” he said.
He plans to take EMT classes and hopes to get hired at Olympic Ambulance before getting hired as a career firefighter. He wants to be a career firefighter in Sequim or on the Olympic Peninsula but is open to whatever comes his way.
Looking to the future
Curtis has received $6,500 in scholarships and $1,750 from the fire department alone. He also has a GoFundMe account to help pay for his medical expenses.
“Friends, family and the community have come together in such a huge responsive way,” Jody said.
“We’re very lucky for unlucky people.”
She added she has seen this kind of support before when her husband died in 2005 and is now seeing it again for her son Curtis.
“There’s no way we could put names to everything because there’s been so much love and support,” she said.
As a family, Jody said the three of them including 15-year-old sister Brynn always have been there for each other.
“It’s been the three of us,” Jody said. “We’ve always just had each other and we still continue to do that.”
Jody and Brynn decided to both shave a portion of one side of their head in support of Curtis who has a bald head after he made the decision to cut his hair after it had been long his whole life.
Curtis said his girlfriend Rose Erickson, also a Sequim High School senior that graduated this year, has been a big support and is considered a part of the family.
Curtis said he views battling and surviving cancer as an opportunity to learn from.
“It felt like I was losing touch with things and I was just going into the rat race per se,” he said. “But this kind of paused me and taught me to learn to enjoy life.”
He said the experience also has taught him to be thankful.
“Just enjoy life, there’s not any good reason not to enjoy life,” he said. “Even if there’s a period of time where it’s going to be uncomfortable.”
Curtis said after he is done with his treatment he plans on becoming actively involved in the Mike Beery Memorial Children’s Fund —a fund created in honor of his father dedicated to helping children and their families in need.
“I’m so proud of him,” Jody said, and of her daughter Brynn.
Learn more about Curtis Beery at his GoFundMe account at https://www.gofundme.com/curtis-beery-fundraiser.
Curtis Beery accepts his high school diploma from Sequim School Board president Heather Short and vice president Brian Kuh at the Sequim High School graduation on June 9. Sequim Gazette photo by Michael Dashiell
