Swift Current's fire chief is back at the helm and feeling refreshed after undergoing experimental treatments for colon cancer.

Darren McClelland happily returned to his desk at 236 Chaplin Street East on Monday following five weeks off in which he travelled to Tijuana, Mexico for 26 non-invasive treatments. 

"I always told everybody it was like groundhog day," he explained. "I get up and do the same thing every day, treatments were six days, Sunday was the only day we didn't do a treatment."

Three to four hours a day McClelland would spend receiving the therapy which was all natural, something different from his two rounds of chemotherapy and three surgeries he'd had done in the past to no avail.

"It's not necessarily treating me for cancer, they do the same thing for somebody with diabetes or MS or fibromyalgia or arthritis," he said. "What the treatments are to do is to boost your immune system and get it so your body is able to fight off whatever that disease may be. By curing my immune system and going through these treatments the idea is that my body now will fight the cancer instead of using chemicals and that sort of thing.

"Does it take my cancer away? I can't say that right now. There were many people down that were there they still have cancer, but their cancer is in check, it's not spreading, it's not growing, and it's been that way for years. If you can get past that point mentally and continue to be who you are and have a good quality of life, then that's what is really important."

While McClelland was out of the country, his coworkers and friends started to raise funds for his medical expenses even to his shock and dismay.

"I feel a bit guilty that these people are doing this for me," he said. "I look at the GoFundMe page and I wasn't studying it every day. but I'd look and I don't even know who they are. I just want to say thank you to those people, obviously, they just care. This is one of those times nobody wants to be me that's for sure, but the support you get is amazing."

Over $87,000 has been raised in just over a month's time on the GoFundMe page for the long-time firefighter that will help him continue his treatments down the road.

"The plan is to head back down there in March and it's for 10 treatments at that time and if I have to stay longer I'll do what I have to to get better," McClelland said. "Then it's something if you can get to that point, kind of the succession and the way it goes is it would be six months on the same treatment plan and then maybe a year if you can get to that point. As far as feeling good I mean it relieved a lot of stress, tension, and anxiety."

For the first time in three years, he was able to play hockey last week; something that was before was only a dream.