BAKERSFIELD, Calif. (KGET) — Randy Raymond was living out his dream.
“I love it. I wake up, I love going to work,” said Raymond. “I get to work around my friends every day.”
But in December 2023, the 22-year-old began what may be the toughest battle he’s had yet. It was cancer.
“I had had a lot of pain in my groin area,” said Raymond. “My beautiful girlfriend decided to tell me that ‘you need to go to urgent care.’ They said, ‘something’s not right, we’re going to send you to get an ultrasound.’ She told me straight to my face that ‘we have to cut [the testicle] off, it’s cancer.'”
The young firefighter thought he was in the clear, but then came time for the yearly checkup.
“A year later it had spread to my lymph nodes in my abdomen and then in my neck,” said Raymond.
The official diagnosis was stage 3 non-seminoma testicular cancer.
Now, Raymond is undergoing his first round of chemotherapy. Despite that, he remains in high spirits. Especially with good news from his doctor.
“His confidence was really what made me also be confident,” said Raymond.
His friends at the department have their own way of bringing up his spirits too.
“Just some funny stuff,” said Raymond. “Like, because I only have one testicle now, if we’re playing pickleball and there’s two balls, they’ll get rid of one and they’ll go, ‘here you go, now you feel more comfortable.’ But I think it’s just the little jabs and jokes that just bring my spirit up and doesn’t make me feel like an outcast… I love every second of it.”
That, plus ways to pass the time during his Monday-through-Friday, six-hour daily treatment, helps make it go a little faster.
“I bring my computer, I do homework, I’ll catch up on some news,” said Raymond. “I built a little game system out of a Milwaukee Packout box that has an Xbox in it.”
But all the “Madden,” “College Football,” and “Call of Duty” he could handle comes nowhere close to what he says passes the time most.
“Company has been the biggest thing to waste time for me,” said Raymond. “Because people show up, and we talk for an hour.”
On his first day of chemotherapy, Raymond got enough company to last him days: a convoy of his KCFD brothers to lead him into the hospital.
“Day one, turning onto Chester and seeing 12, 13 pieces of county equipment sitting there. And I had no idea that all those guys were going to be there,” said Raymond. “I don’t cry much, but I could say that I was holding back tears. To see how much love and support my brothers have for me … That’s my second family. I have my family here, and I go to work and that is my family. I didn’t need words of inspiration, I had all the inspiration I needed right there.”
His message for those fighting a battle like his?
“Stay positive, you know? Love life,” said Raymond. “You get one life, right? I don’t want to be sad. If you’re going to go through something, be positive.”
If you’d like to help Raymond in his fight against cancer, you can donate here.
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