Blackfoot Police officer returns to work after cancer battle
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BLACKFOOT — A police officer who spent the past year battling cancer is now cleared to return to work for the department he loves.
Kenny Williams is a patrol corporal for the Blackfoot Police Department. He has been with the department for seven years.
In February, doctors told him he was cancer-free.
“It felt great. Felt like a weight was lifted off, you know?” Williams told EastIdahoNews.com.
Williams was re-sworn in on Monday by the Blackfoot Police Department. He was scheduled to begin work on Tuesday.
“We are excited. He missed a total of about 13 months of work, and I think it has been a long, hard fight for him as an individual, but also, I think it’s important that we do our best as a city entity to retain well-trained and qualified employees, and Kenny was one of those before getting the diagnosis of cancer,” said Capt. Wes Wheatley with the Blackfoot Police Department.
Williams was diagnosed with leukemia in early March of last year. He has a wife, Carrie, and two young children.
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“It just kind of hit. (You) start thinking about the kids, and if you are going to be able to be there for them in the end, you know? It’s a lot to take in at once,” Williams said after he got the diagnosis.
He said he started to feel pain in his back but didn’t realize that it was much more than that.
“I thought it was from my job from being a police officer. I thought I had something wrong with my back,” Williams recalls. “So I started going to the doctor and getting all the tests and the scans and come to find out that it’s cancer instead of back problems.”
Williams spent time at Huntsman Cancer Institute in Utah. There were many ups and downs.
“After he got admitted in March, he had a couple of different treatments that pretty much failed. Pretty much no chemo was working for him,” said Carrie. “They decided to do something called CAR T, which is kind of a new therapy that’s being used for cancers. That’s finally what made him cancer free.”
Williams had to get a bone marrow transplant too.
“We had setback after setback. We had donors fall through for the transplant. He got COVID, and everything was being pushed back,” Carrie said. “We were finally able to get him the transplant, and that was Nov. 17, right around Secret Santa time.”
The Williams family was a Secret Santa recipient in November, a program that gives $1 million away during the holiday season to deserving people in eastern Idaho. Click here to watch.
Through everything, Carrie said there were blessings.
“We are extremely grateful for everyone’s prayers and donations. Secret Santa was just a huge blessing in our lives at that point. His coworkers did a fundraiser, and they actually donated their own PTO,” said Carrie.
The Blackfoot Police Department was able to help him with his job.
“The city allows for certain amounts of time to be donated to him by all city personnel, so even other people in the streets (department), water department, or city hall were able to donate time,” Wheatley said.
Kenny expressed his gratitude to his coworkers while talking with EastIdahoNews.com.
“It was very surprising how much everybody was just kind of donating and helped out in any way that they could. It was very reassuring that all those guys had my back through all of this,” he said.
Williams said he has missed working at the department and being with his co-workers daily.
“Just grateful for all the family and friends that were there to support me. It was a long road, but we all made it through. Not the best weight loss plan, but I did lose a bunch of weight from all of this!” Williams said, laughing. “I am ready to get back to work.”
