Utah teen becoming a firefighter after surviving cancer, homelessness

By Jenna Bree

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    HERRIMAN, Utah (KSTU) — Jesse Mecham has dreamed of becoming a firefighter.

“It’s one of the best jobs in the world,” he said.

After becoming homeless, Jesse was taken in by his grandfather, whose footsteps he’s now following.

“My grandpa was in 9/11,” he said. “He didn’t die during 9/11, but he died because of it. He ended up inhaling the jet fuel that was burning off there and it killed him like 20 years later.”

One year after losing his grandfather to cancer, Jesse himself was diagnosed with germ cell cancer.

“It was pretty scary to watch him die from it,” he said. “And then my realization that I could die from this.”

Having no family to take Jesse in, Julie Williams made room for the teen in her home.

“‘I don’t have anywhere to go. I don’t know what to do. Nobody wants me,’” she recalls Jesse saying. “And we just said, ‘That is absolutely false.’”

After graduating from Mountain Ridge High School Thursday, Jesse is on to Utah Valley University’s fire academy, with a scholarship from Make-A-Wish, who surprised him with a firetruck and a check before graduation.

“When you get cancer or something, you go into a spiral of sadness and when you get the Make-A-Wish, you get all joyful and you’re very motivated in life,” he said.

Surrounded by many classmates who did not graduate, Williams could not be more proud of Jesse.

“He could have played the victim,” she said. “He could have wallowed in his misery. He could have given up at any point in his life, and he hasn’t. He has persevered, he’s pushed forward. He’s been such a great example to us all in everything that he does.”

Jesse wants a career in which he can pay forward the kindness he was shown, he said.

“I was trying to figure out what I wanted for my wish, and I realized I wanted a future, and so my future I could see was being a firefighter.”

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