B.C. firefighter fighting cancer 'blown away' by birthday surprise

Marilyn Piticco wanted to do something special for her husband on his 61st birthday.

Randy Piticco, a retired Surrey firefighter and grandfather has stage four lung cancer andhe had justfinished a round of chemotherapy. He was planning on relaxing and watching football this past Sunday for his birthday.

Despite her husband's weakened condition, Piticco knew she wanted to mark the special occasion, soshe reached out to her tight-knit community inLangley, B.C., with a plan to surprise him.

When Sunday afternoon came, Randy opened his front door and saw 50 people greeting him with a chorus of happy birthday.

"I was totally overwhelmed and blown away by everything," he told CBC. "IfI didn't have a chair there I would have been in trouble. It hit me like a sledgehammer."

The neighbours came with food, balloons, cards and cake for Piticco.

Then the fire department showed up.Piticco's son-in-law is a captain in theLangleyTownship Fire Department, and he brought the truck down with members of the local fire station to Randy's home.

A Facebook video of the event shows Piticco wiping away his tears and visiting with his party guests.

"I was going to watch football all day long, and it turned out to be ten times better, a hundred times better," Pittico said.