BANGOR, Maine — For Maine State Police Trooper Caleb McGary, who is battling Hodgkin lymphoma, going to work is about more than just bringing home a paycheck. It’s his dream.
“That is what makes me happy — being at work,” McGary said Wednesday, as he stood inside the Target store with a Radio Flyer wagon, a cat piano, a bright red plastic sled and a Christmas-themed outfit for his 7-month old daughter, Ava, in his shopping cart. “It makes me feel good. Sitting at home would make me feel sick.”
McGary has been fighting the cancer, which attacks certain white blood cells, for the last three years. Fellow law enforcement officers quickly came to his aid and have continued to help. He was nominated by Rockland police Officer Bill Smith to be a recipient of the Law Enforcement Officers Only’s 2015 Christmas Shopping Spree.
The national networking and support group for law enforcement personnel was established in 2013 by Pennsylvania State Police Sgt. Craig Polen and has around 30,000 members, Smith said. In addition to supporting each other, the LEO Only group supports families of officers who die, are injured or are sick by taking their kids on Christmas shopping sprees.
“In the first two years, they actually had shopping sprees for over 200 kids,” Smith said. “This year, we have over 70 kids we’re doing shopping sprees for.”
McGary and Smith met for the first time at around 10 a.m. near the front doors of the Bangor retail store, and McGary told his story about fighting cancer and taking the experimental drug Nivolumab as part of a clinical trial that has improved his life and enabled him to keep working.
“They advertise it as a chance to live longer,” McGary said.
“Every time I see that commercial, I say, ‘Yeah!’’’ said Stevie Dunham McGary, his wife of six years, gesturing with a fist pump.
“The nurses still call it chemotherapy, but it’s not,” McGary said of the intravenous drug he started to take in June, after his cancer resurfaced for a third time with a vengeance. “It has given me a great quality of life. We’re just going to ride this high as long as we can. There is no end date for the clinical trial. One guy has been on it for three years.”
McGary said he was in high school and went on a ride along with then-Trooper Jason Sattler, who is now a sergeant for Troop J in Ellsworth where McGary works, and knew instantly that he wanted to follow in Sattler’s footsteps.
“I knew immediately … I wanted to be just like him,” said McGary, who started in law enforcement as a University of Maine police officer, a job he kept for four years.
He found out he had cancer shortly after applying to become a Maine State Police trooper in 2012. He withdrew his application, went through eight months of cancer treatment and after his cancer was in remission, he reapplied and was accepted in 2013. He graduated that December.
“The day I got sworn in by the [state police] colonel is the day I learned I relapsed my second time,” McGary said as he walked through the store carrying his daughter in his arms.
Even though he had not yet served his first day on the job, his fellow troopers stepped forward to support him.
“They donated all their vacation time” to allow McGary to undergo and recover from his chemotherapy and stem cell transplantation, using his own cells, without having to worry about paying his bills, his wife said. “Their support is amazing.”
“I think the Maine State Police has really set the bar as a great example of how to take care of your own,” Smith added.
McGary and his wife both said they were humbled by the shopping spree, saying there are “more deserving families” out there. Smith said McGary’s determination to give back by his service is why he chose to nominate the Dedham family.
“We will give our all to help anybody and we’ll die for anybody, but we don’t accept help,”
Smith said later of those in law enforcement. “It’s a really difficult thing for us. We’re all in that helper role. We’re givers instead of being receivers. That’s my experience.”
Smith was accompanied at the shopping spree by his goddaughter, Anne Griffith, the youngest daughter of Trooper James “Drew” Griffith, who was killed on April 15, 1996, when a plow truck in Warren struck his cruiser. While shopping, she told the family about how the Maine State Police brotherhood adopted her into their lives.
After five months of treatments, in April 2014, McGary put on his trooper’s uniform and went to work for the first time, performing light duty. Earlier this year, he completed a 10-week advanced training program and was put out on the road.
“I relapsed my third time June 10,” the trooper said. “It was about two weeks after Ava was born and I was going downhill fast.”
Tests showed that the cancer was back and it was “just as bad or worse” as when he was first diagnosed.
“We felt like we were losing,” McGary said. “The next step for me would have been a donor transplant. I’m kinda running out of options.”
That is when his doctor suggested the clinical trial. He started going to Boston every two weeks for treatment shortly afterward.
“I really don’t miss much time [at work],” he said of his current treatment schedule. “I miss the treatment day to go down and the day after. I admit there have been times I’ve worked when, maybe, I shouldn’t have.”
He said his dream job makes him focus on bettering the community and takes his mind off the cancer. He said when he arrives at a scene, the people are not aware of his internal battle.
“They don’t know,” he said. “They just see a trooper.”