Laura Glaubke participates in the Tacky Sweater 5K each winter in Norfolk to honor her husband, Andre, a Norfolk firefighter who died from cancer in late 2018.
She has used that platform, and fundraising involved, to help persuade Eastern Virginia Medical School's dermatology department to screen all Norfolk firefighters for melanoma. She is convinced that the melanoma that killed her husband was a result of environmental factors, such as burning chemicals, firefighters regularly face.
Debra Couch, a training consultant in Old Dominion University's human resources department, had a different idea. Her husband, Billy Couch, died unexpectedly, 30 days after Andre.