A Fort Worth firefighter battling stage 4 cancer is taking on another fight: The mission to get his wife a lifesaving organ transplant.<\/p>\n
Jennifer Brook said that her husband, Todd Brook, being determined is an understatement.<\/p>\n
In sickness and in health \u00a0<\/p>\n
“Here’s this firefighter from Fort Worth, and he’s persistent,” Jennifer Brook said. “He actually asked me out five times before I said yes.”<\/p>\n
Jennifer Brook said yes to a date in 2010, and the couple married in 2024. The feeling of those blissful days is quite different now.<\/p>\n
“I try not to cry,” Jennifer Brook said.<\/p>\n
She does cry, but not in front of her husband.<\/p>\n
“I’m afraid if I start crying, I won’t be able to stop crying, so I try not to cry. It’s just a lot. It’s a lot to try to have faith,” Jennifer Brook said.<\/p>\n
She prays after what doctors told her husband in October 2025.<\/p>\n
“We got the diagnosis that Todd has stage four pancreatic cancer,” Jennifer Brook said. “They gave him three to six months to live.”<\/p>\n
CBS News Texas first met the couple earlier this month during a story about workers’ compensation cancer claims<\/a>. <\/p>\n Todd Brook believes he got the cancer from exposure to carcinogens in his 30 years working as a firefighter. Testing showed no genetic predisposition for getting the disease.<\/p>\n “He hasn’t eaten a meal since April 24,” Jennifer Brook said.<\/p>\n The cancer continues to weaken his body but not his spirit.<\/p>\n “He’s lost over 30 pounds just May 1,” Jennifer Brook said.<\/p>\n Holding onto hope for each other<\/p>\n The Brooks got another blow when doctors told Jennifer she’d need a kidney transplant due to polycystic kidney disease. Her husband was going to be her donor.<\/p>\n “With the diagnosis of cancer, I got kicked out of the pool,” Todd Brook said.<\/p>\n Jennifer Brook will go on dialysis if she doesn’t get a kidney transplant. The average lifespan for someone on dialysis is five years.<\/p>\n Todd Brook fights for his own life every day but sheds tears for his wife.<\/p>\n “She is 100% the most important thing in my life, and not being able to be there for her is killing me now,” he said.<\/p>\n Jennifer Brook cries her own tears for her husband.<\/p>\n “I know that either God needs to heal him very, very soon because I don’t want to see him suffer,” Jennifer Brook said.<\/p>\n The couple remains optimistic about each other’s healing as they fight their own health battles together.<\/p>\n You can see if you’re a match to donate a kidney to Jennifer through UT Southwestern’s living donor program. Click here<\/a> for more information.<\/p>\n