Strongsville Cop Beats Cancer, Leads Community Fight Against Disease

STRONGSVILLE, OH — Officer Jason Glover looks like a cop. He's tall, strong and bald. On first glance, he doesn't look like your typical cancer survivor.

Not only did Glover beat Hodgkin's Lymphoma, he's also helping lead Strongsville's efforts to defeat cancer. The 36-year-old has become an integral part of Relay for Life's Strongsville event.

Glover's story starts in late 2013. While shaving for work, he found an ambiguous lump near his left collar bone. "Being a man, I chose to ignore it," he said smirking. (To stay up to date on these stories, subscribe to the Patch Strongsville newsletter. As news breaks and the story develops, you will be the first to receive updates from Patch.)

A few weeks went by and Glover was once again shaving when he encountered the lump. This time, its presence sent a shiver of dread down his spine and he decided to call a doctor. He hadn't displayed any worrisome symptoms, but something about the lump triggered fear in his mind. "I had a gut feeling something was wrong," he said.

He visited a doctor at the Brunswick Cleveland Clinic. The doctor told Glover to get an appointment to see a specialist. And he was told to get that appointment as soon as possible.

"If I couldn't get in within a week, I was supposed to let my doctor know," he said.

He called and set the appointment for exactly one week from his first doctor's appointment. That night, he went to bed worried. Then his phone rang.

It was his doctor from Brunswick. He had gotten Glover's appointment moved up to the next day.

That's when Glover knew something was wrong.

"My doctor was concerned," he said.

After visiting with the specialist, Glover was diagnosed with Hodgkin's Lymphoma, a cancer that starts in white blood cells and can spread throughout the body, according to the American Cancer Society.

"It was a whirlwind after that," Glover said.

He visited an Ear, Nose and Throat (ENT) specialist to ensure the cancer hadn't moved into his lungs. He took test after test after test. His official diagnosis was 2A because the cancer had moved into two sectors of his body. However, his cancer was very treatable.

"People think I'm strange for saying this but I won the cancer lottery," he said.

Over the next seven months, Glover received 12 doses of chemotherapy. During his treatment, he said, the city was "phenomenal" to him. They allocated sick time, made sure Glover was taken care of and were always understanding. Eventually, he started getting better.

The end of his cancer journey was bittersweet for Glover. A month after he was declared cancer free, and was happily celebrating with his wife and two young children, he got bad news. His mother had passed away from lung cancer.

However, during his treatment he met an oncology nurse named Ann. The two bonded and Ann convinced Glover to take an interest in Relay for Life, a walk to raise money for cancer research. It could be a way to keep fighting cancer.

Boosting the Relay

That interest led to Glover meeting Becky Zunt in 2015, who was then the coordinator for the Strongsville Relay for Life. She asked Glover if he could organize two groups to participate in the city's event. She wanted a police team and a fire team, envisioning the two teams squaring off in a class police vs fire fundraising competition.

Glover happily agreed. Of course, lining up schedules for safety forces is an extremely difficult task. Creating two teams became untenable, so Glover improvised and built out the Strongsville Safety Forces team, consisting of police officers, firefighters and dispatchers.

Realizing that Glover was both a great spokesperson for the group and had a ton of connections with the city, Zunt asked him to both run the Safety Forces team and join the city's Relay for Life committee. Initially hesitant, Glover eventually joined up.

The Strongsville Relay is a 24-hour event that sees representatives for teams walking the track at Pat Catan Stadium, 20025 Lunn Rd., all day. It's one of the few, true all-day relays in Ohio.

The Safety Forces team has consistently raised about $10,000 for the event. This year, Glover has stepped away from leading the squad, turning those duties over to Robin Sinclair, a dispatcher. However, he wants to recruit other nearby police departments to participate. He thinks Berea will likely join the Relay this year.

The 2018 Relay will be held June 9 and starts at 1 p.m. Pat Catan Stadium will again play host to the event. More information on the event can be found here.

A bevy of fundraising events will be held leading up to June 9 and the community will be invited to attend, Glover said.

Glover is now expanding his role with the Executive Leadership Team of the Strongsville Relay. He wants to make the event as big as possible and is looking for additional help and coordinators. He asks that folks interested in taking part in the event, or making it as successful as possible, reach out to him at strongsvillerelay@gmail.com

To learn more about Relay for Life:

Visit the Strongsville Facebook page

Visit the Strongsville website

Email strongsvillerelay@gmail.com

Photos from Chris Mosby, Patch