Nicki Stone has a passion for helping people. That’s why she became a Waco (TX) police officer.
The 34 year old single mother of two is fighting breast cancer and when officers came to help, the city said no.
City employees are allowed to accrue sick time over the years, and officers have offered to donate some of their sick time to Stone while she is missing work after a double mastectomy and chemotherapy sessions.
The city said no, citing a longstanding policy against such practices.
Oddly, when a Waco police detective needed sick time donated because his 7-year-old daughter has cancer, the city had no issue with that.
Waco Police Association President Ken Reeves said a lot of officers came forward to donate their sick time to Stone and the detective.
Stone, who has been a patrol officer for three years, used up the 480 hours granted under the Family and Medical Leave Act and is now on short-term disability. That allows her to draw 75 percent of her pay while raising a 12-year-old son and a 4-year-old daughter.
Stone, who has no history of breast cancer in her family, found a quarter-size lump in November 2016 and was diagnosed with breast cancer in February. She underwent a double mastectomy Feb. 24 and started chemotherapy in April.
She has had three chemo treatments so far and undergoes one every three weeks. She likely will start radiation treatments after that and hopes to be back at work in mid-August.
She knows it could be some time before she is back on patrol, but the department is working with her to find other jobs, perhaps in the area of training, she said.