Ringing The Bell: Former Cheyenne Cop's Battle To Beat Cancer

Theirs is an unconventional love story. 

Cheyenne police officer Tom Garrison and former state legislator Lori Millin began dating in May 2015. Millin was recovering from a devastating divorce, and Garrison was on the tail end of a 20-year career in law enforcement when the two connected at a gathering of mutual friends. 

They were still just “weekend dating,” in Lori’s words, when on a Sunday evening in August 2016, Tom became suddenly ill.

“We’re watching ‘Game of Thrones’ on a Sunday night, and he started saying, ‘I have this pain,’” Lori told Cowboy State Daily. “For two hours, we were like, maybe Tylenol, maybe this, maybe that. But pretty soon he couldn't feel his face.”

That Sunday evening in 2016 would be the beginning of two crucial events in both their lives — Tom’s cancer journey, and the launch of the Garrisons’ true-love romance.

The Diagnosis

It was the night of Aug. 31, 2016, and Tom Garrison couldn’t believe his situation. A Hall of Fame athlete at the University of Wyoming, an Army veteran, a former track coach, and a police officer for the city of Cheyenne for the previous two decades, Garrison had never felt pain like this.

“I couldn't even get him out of the car,” said Lori. “They have to get a wheelchair. We get him into the emergency room, and they're like, ‘We have to do a bunch of blood tests.’”

Lori said the medical team took his blood and immediately saw that something was seriously wrong. She said Tom’s request for Toradol, a potent non-opioid anti-inflammatory pain reliever, was denied — but they could offer him morphine. Tom’s initial reaction was, absolutely not.

“I said, ‘Morphine? I'm not a drug addict,’” Tom told Cowboy State Daily. “And then finally I said, ‘I'll take it.’”

It wasn’t long before the emergency room doctor came in, discovered red dots of petechiae on Tom’s legs, and ordered a bone marrow biopsy. 

“He said, ‘Either you have a very bad virus, or you have cancer,’” Lori said.

The diagnosis? Acute lymphoblastic leukemia. 

“Alana Workman, with the Cancer Center here in Cheyenne, came in and said, ‘We don't treat this here. You need to be an inpatient,’” said Lori. When Tom balked at the treatment plan, Lori said Workman got tough with him.

“She's like, ‘Tom, you're young, you're strong, so you can beat this,’” said Lori. “‘You are a University of Wyoming Hall of Fame athlete. You can cowboy up and kill this cancer. And if you don't, you've got two weeks to live.’”

So in September 2016, Tom began a month as an inpatient at the University of Colorado Health 

Anschutz hospital in Aurora.

“My Angel”

In August 2016, Lori Millin and Tom Garrison had been dating for over a year, but the two hadn’t committed to any sort of future.

Lori was a twice-divorced insurance agent with three sons, and Tom, also divorced, was beginning to consider retirement from his law enforcement career.  

“We just date on the weekends, right?” said Lori. “And here I am, and he's like, ‘I need you to stay.’ Okay, I'm going to stay.”

Lori said she immediately took on the burden of Tom’s care. 

“We had to go down to the hospital that first month,” she said. “Then we had to go every 21 days and stay for a week. And he wanted me to go every time, so I would sleep on the couch.” 

And when the time came for Tom to leave inpatient treatment in Denver, their relationship changed for good.

“When I got out of the hospital that first month, I went to her house, and I never went back to my house again,” said Tom.

“Tom made a post on Facebook calling me his angel,” said Lori. “Oh, I love this man.”

Ringing The Bell

Tom was released from inpatient treatment at the end of September 2016, and on February 4, 2017 (which is held every year on February 4), Tom “rang the bell” at the cancer center, signaling that his intense chemotherapy treatment was complete.

“I was just, ‘Thank God I'm out of here,’” said Tom. “But you know, it wasn't even half over yet.”

Although he no longer had to go to Denver for treatment unless he needed a bone marrow biopsy, he was still on a stringent pharmaceutical regimen.

“I would go to the big doctor every two months, and I had a port, a picc line,” said Tom, pointing to the scar left by the tube that had been implanted in his arm in order to receive some of the medication. 

“I flushed his line, and I gave him his meds through that,” said Lori. “He'd take them morning, noon and night, because he had to be on prednisone and antibiotics, and his methotrexate and all the things he had to be on.”

As 2018 came to a close, Lori told Tom what their next step would be.

“I said, ‘You're going to propose to me,’” she said. “And he said, ‘Why do you want to marry me?’ And I said, ‘Well, I love you.’ I met him when I was down and felt unloved, and so he saved my life.”

The two married on June 1, 2019, a bright light in a drama that was far from over.

The Battle Isn’t Over

Although Tom was able to go to a lighter maintenance dose of chemotherapy after he rang that bell in February 2017, he still had to undergo an infusion once a month at the cancer center in Cheyenne. 

“And then after that was over, I still had to take the oral ones for another two years,” said Tom.

“Chemo drugs are not for the weak,” said Lori, noting that side effects include infections, nose bleeds, gum and teeth damage, neuropathy in toes and fingers, and the inability to wear contact lenses.

“Mental health issues with depression, horrible heartburn and being really sick all the time,” she added. “And to think he NEVER gave up even though he wanted to quit at times. What a true warrior he was and is. I am not sure I could ever be that strong.” 

In 2023, six years after the ringing of the bell, Tom took his last dose of chemotherapy.

“He's in remission, but (the leukemia)  is dormant,” said Lori. “And if you’re in remission five years, great, but you're not in what you'd call ‘complete recovery’ until 10 years - which is going to be this September.” 

And the battle has left its mark on a man who was once an all-star athlete and career law enforcement officer.

“Tom has neuropathy, he doesn't feel his fingertips or his toes, and has lots of pains,” said Lori. “Chemo cured his cancer, but it wreaks havoc on the body. He's dealing with gum issues, because the chemo just ruins your mouth.”

Faith And Friends

Both Lori and Tom say that the support of friends contributed significantly to Tom’s recovery.

“A guy by the name of Eric Richey was his college roommate, and they have stayed friends forever,” said Lori. “Eric is a singer-songwriter in Nashville. As soon as he found out Tom was sick, he dropped everything and flew to Denver.”

Lori said Richey sat by Tom’s hospital bed and played music. 

“He brought Tom a guitar,” said Lori, “and then he left it here for him.”

“I always tell people, dying changes a guy,” said Tom, tears filling his eyes. “And just people coming to your bedside and laughing with you, it makes a difference. I don't know if I would have made it, if I didn't have all this. And the power of prayer.”

Friends have also helped the couple face more than $4 million in medical expenses. 

“Thank God he had insurance,” said Lori. “But even if you have insurance, you have so many bills. And the community came together - the firefighters and police had a big chili fundraiser, and our best friends did an auction for us to raise $20-30,000 for us, which helped with the deductibles and stuff.” 

A friend of Lori’s had advised her to write everything down, because in the chaos of the situation, there would be moments that she would not remember, but would want to later.

So she started writing in her journal, on the cover of which is written a Bible verse from Philippians 4:13, “I can do everything through Him who gives me strength.”

“I wrote the good and the bad,” she said. “I wrote on the days where he struggled and I struggled.

In this one, I wrote, ‘Tom just wants to go home, but my thoughts for the week are that the positive power of friends is amazing. Laughter and music do make the spirit happy. Love heals illnesses, the power of prayer does make miracles happen.'”

Wendy Corr can be reached at wendy@cowboystatedaily.com.