Climbing stairs to fight cancer

Published 10:57 am Wednesday, March 16, 2011

Can you climb 69 flights of stairs carrying more than 50 pounds of gear?

Paine Field firefighter Tony Mace and his friends can. They plan to do it Saturday outside the Mukilteo QFC to raise money for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society.

I wrote a story about this fundraiser last year and even tried out the stair climber myself. The firefighters put some kind of a heavy vest on me, so I got tired pretty quickly.

I was really touched when Tony talked about planning this fundraiser to honor his father, a fire department battalion chief who lost his life to cancer.

Tony and others also climbed 69 flights of stairs at Seattle’s Columbia Center as part of the Scott Firefighter Stair Climb.

The firefighters will be working the stair climbers in full bunker gear from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Saturday in front the QFC, at 11700 Mukilteo Speedway. Stop by!