CONCORD, N.C. -- Veteran fire engineer Matt Sellers works at Fire Station 7 in Concord.

“I’ve been a volunteer fireman since I was 16 years old,” he said.

But in 2011, a diagnosis that gave him a 35 percent chance of survival took him away from the fire department to a hospital bed.

“It’s unexplainable,” Sellers told us. “It’s just an 'oh my God, you know, what’s going to happen? Am I going to die?'”

He had a rare form of lymphoma.

“It accounts for like 1 percent of all lymphomas in the world,” Sellers said.

Many studies show firefighters face higher risk of cancer because of their exposure to carcinogens.

Seller's battle against lymphoma ultimately led to a bone marrow transplant on Feb. 8, 2012.

And exactly five years later, on Feb. 82017, Sellers came back to work.

“It was awesome,” he said. “Just like I never left. Just fit right back into place and everything’s been just so great.”

He is now leading a peer support program through North Carolina Firefighter Cancer Alliance. It’s a relatively new organization based in Concord that aims to spread awareness and educate firefighter across North Carolina.

“We’re trying to show that no matter the size of your department, no matter if you’re volunteer or paid, you can have the tools to do that field decontamination right there on the truck ready to go without any problems,” Assistant Fire Marshal Travis McGaha said.

McGaha is an executive board member of the cancer alliance.

He said he knows cancer isn’t easy to talk about. “I’ve had classes at volunteer fire departments where chiefs say I’m done, bye bye, and go upstairs and go to bed,” he said.

But he said it’s necessary to talk about the risks and encourage firefighters to adopt new policies to reduce the amount of carcinogens they breathe in.

To read more about cancer prevention tips, click here.

You can learn more about North Carolina Firefighter Cancer Alliance here.