CLAY COUNTY, Fla. – A Clay County firefighter was among the 226 that were honored in the National Fallen Firefighters Memorial Weekend in Maryland.
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Jeremy McKay, a Clay County Fire Rescue engineer, died from cancer in 2019.
Jasen Hernandez and Ronnie Hutchison are with Local 3362 Clay County Professional Firefighters Union and knew McKay well.
“He was always a steady, steady worker, and not a negative bone in his body,” Hutchison said.
Hernandez and Hutchison received a flag for McKay on behalf of his family.
“It is sad. We have to come out here and honor our fellow brother and do the right thing for him,” Hernandez said.
McKay died from stomach cancer in November 2019 after being diagnosed just a little more than a year earlier. He was 45 years old.
But what he did during that battle is changing lives right now.
“He was a fighter all the way to the end. He not only fought for himself. He fought for his family, but he also laid groundwork and fought for every firefighter that is after him,” Hutchison said.
That groundwork is now Florida legislation which McKay celebrated just less than six months before he died.
McKay helped get a bill passed in 2019 that helps firefighters diagnosed with cancer from the job get full coverage for treatment, a $25,000 payout and death benefits for their loved ones.
It’s the same bill that paved the way for another one that the governor just signed last week in Jacksonville that adds even more benefits for firefighters diagnosed with cancer.
“He did fight all the way until the end, all the way up to D.C. He went to D.C., he was in Tallahassee and they passed the bill. He was a big part of that,” Hernandez said.
“Jeremy’s battle wasn’t just about his cancer. Jeremy’s battle is about everybody, every firefighter in the future. It’s about their cancer too,” Hutchison said.
They said McKay’s death will not be in vain.
There were seven firefighters from Florida honored this weekend in Maryland. Four of those deaths were line-of-duty deaths from cancer.