At 31 years old, a cancer diagnosis was not on Const. Matt Oakes’s radar.

But after experiencing chest and jaw pain and a rapid 20-pound weight loss late last year, the Hamilton police officer was diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia.

Following an eight-month hospital stay, chemotherapy, many blood transfusions and a stem cell transplant in April, the now 32-year-old Paris resident said he never takes a day for granted.

He also knows he might not be here were it not for the people who donated blood when he needed it.

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