Dean Hale is free of cancer and rarin’ to go—back to work on a Murrieta fire truck that is.

The firefighter/paramedic from Murrieta in January was declared cancer free, following treatment with a new drug that targeted his specific type of disease.

Months before, Hale was diagnosed with Stage 4 non-small cell lung cancer but the state Worker’s Compensation board would not pay for the special drug without his first trying chemotherapy.

The Worker's Compensation Board had to determine the illness was work-related, with Hale and his superiors having to submit data on all residential, vehicle, wildland and structure fires he fought.

Hale had six treatments and the cancer began to recede, just about the time the Food & Drug Administration approved the drug—Xalkori—for human use.

He told Patch he feels "blessed" because his particular cancer could be targeted by the drug.

"It's a medication that I'll have to stay on for the rest of my life," Hale told Patch.

"This was God's blessing working in my life," he said. "It's a small group of people that can use this drug to fight this type of cancer."

Feeling as blessed as he is, Hale intends to become the sort of support person that helped him when he was first diagnosed with the illness.

One of the first phone calls he received was from the Firefighter Cancer Support Network.

That assistance from a fellow firefighter made all the difference, Hale told Patch, because the advice—they spoke for 45 minutes—came from someone who knew exactly what it was like to be a firefighter who had developed a work-related cancer.

"I will be giving back to them of my time," he said.

Though he is chomping at the bit to get back to work, he concedes his wife is a little nervous.

However, Hale said, his wife is supportive and wants him to do what he loves—what he has wanted to do since he was 16 years old.

"She recognizes...the passion for what I'm doing."

As for his three children, twin 19-year-old co-eds and an 11-year-old boy, they are as excited as he is, Hale said.

As a matter of fact, his son cannot wait to become a firefighter like his dad.

When the family first moved to Murrieta from Alhambra about five years ago, said Hale, it was 6-year-old Wyatt who knew the location of every firehouse before his father did.

"His goal is to be 14 so he can join the fire Explorers," Hale said.