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One night in May, after he had returned to the firehouse after battling a blaze, Emily Broderick got a text from husband, Mike Broderick, complaining of stomach pain.
”It was actually the night before my birthday,” Emily, 46, tells PEOPLE. After he went to the bathroom and saw that his urine was brown, she insisted he go straight to the emergency room.
Mike, 51, and Emily, who have been married for 25 years and raised four children, initially thought that he had kidney stones. But after he went to the hospital, Mike learned he had cholangiocarcinoma, or bile duct cancer.
It is unclear how Mike, a firefighter and Army veteran contracted the rare disease. “He is quite honestly the healthiest person I know,” Emily says. “Cancer was the last thing on our radar.”
Emily Broderick
In October, Building Homes for Heroes stepped in to assist Mike — whose stage 4 cancer treatment is not covered by insurance or disability — by paying off his mortgage, giving him and his family one less thing to worry about.
“I don’t know what to say,” a visibly moved Mike said in a video shared by the New York nonprofit when he and Emily learned about the gift. “It just means a lot to me."
Mike and Emily first met in 1994 and married four years later. The same year they got hitched, Mike enlisted in the Army — and he was a first responder when the Pentagon was attacked on 9/11.
After he and Emily left Washington, D.C., where he was stationed, to start a family in Iowa, Mike joined the National Guard and became a firefighter — a job he's held for 16 years.
“The number of firefighters that come sit and spend time with him, it's overwhelming,” says Emily. “They've been amazing.”
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And although getting up and doing things isn't always easy, Emily shares that her husband, who is now on desk duty due to his illness, "tries to be positive."
"He's not a quitter," she says. "He doesn't know how to quit."
Emily Broderick
Tyler Mark, Mike's friend and a fellow Des Moines firefighter, introduced the Brodericks to Building Homes for Heroes. Founded in 2006 after the 9/11 attacks, the organization has gifted over 300 homes to veterans.
“He actually came up to the hospital when Mike was in for an infection here in Des Moines, and he introduced himself to me," Emily tells PEOPLE. "He said, ‘I'm on this board of directors [for Building Homes for Heroes], and I'm going to try to make it possible so that we can pay off your mortgage and Mike can focus on his cancer fight.’"
"Mike and I both burst into tears," she adds.
Emily Broderick
In an interview with ABC affiliate WOI-DT, Mark said that Mike has spent "his whole adult life [giving] back to the community and the country."
"Mike has always stepped up and answered the call when others needed help and he's always done it quietly and professionally," he said. "Now it's time for Mike to focus and take care of himself and the community to help support Mike."
Emily Broderick
In addition to the organization's help, another friend of Mike’s started a GoFundMe to help provide financial support for the Broderick family. Emily says the generosity shown to her family has been "so humbling and profound."
“There's help everywhere, but we never could have imagined this," Emily tells PEOPLE. "It has been the best gift I never wanted to receive."
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Firefighter and Veteran with Stage 4 Cancer Gets Mortgage Paid Off by Nonprofit: 'So Humbling,' Wife Says - PEOPLE
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