Las Vegas Sun

March 28, 2024

Newlywed Metro officer ‘not done fighting’ terminal cancer diagnosis

Officer Crystal Sanchez

Courtesy

Metro Police Officer Crystal Sanchez, who is battling terminal cancer, is shown with her daughter, Evelyn.

Officer Crystal Sanchez Battling Terminal Cancer

LVMPD officers Crystal Sanchez and Camerson Sims are married in the hospital. Sanchez is battling stage 4 lung cancer.  A Gofundme campaign has been started to help with Sanchez' medical bills and to start a trust for her daughter Evelyn's future education.  (Courtesy of family) Launch slideshow »

The couple envisioned an extravagant wedding at an idyllic vintage hotel in California. They picked a date in the spring of 2021.

They gleefully planned the details such as what to wear, what music would be played and where they would honeymoon. The ballooning guest list was worrisome but it was also a soothing realization about how many loved ones supported them.

But Metro Police Officer Crystal Sanchez, 30, is battling terminal cancer that has spread throughout her body. And on July 24, sitting on a hospital bed with only a chaplain and a couple others in attendance, Sanchez vowed eternal love to fellow Officer Cameron Sims.

Although it wasn’t the wedding they imagined, it was everything, Sims said.

“It was just a beautiful ceremony, to see her smiling and aware and awake,” Sims said. “I could see it in her eyes, you know, it gave her that hope, like, ‘I’m not done fighting.’

“Regardless of the setting,” Sims said. “Regardless of her condition at the time, I think all worries went away for that short five or 10 minutes we were going through that ceremony.”

Sanchez is now back home with her 6-year-old daughter Evelyn, who is known to make her mom crack a smile even on the worst of days.

Sanchez wasn’t available for an interview, but her husband, her Metro supervisor and others are praising her bubbly personality, her upstanding character and her fighting spirit.

Sanchez is not the boastful type. So, they brag for her.

Lt. Bill Steinmetz spoke about the middle-of-the-night call he got on June 1, when Officer Shay Mikalonis was critically wounded with a gunshot during a protest. Sanchez was on medical leave.

“I received a phone call from Crystal,” said Steinmetz, whose team was combing through video of the shooting. “She basically said, ‘Hey listen …. just so you know, I’ll throw a mask on and I’ll be there in a heartbeat, just give me the word.’”

Steinmetz met Sanchez when she was sent for light-duty work at the Southern Nevada Counter-Terrorism Center after her cancer was detected. While there, she outshined her colleagues, Steinmetz said, even the full-time employees.

A war veteran who was deployed with the Nevada National Guard to Afghanistan as an information technology specialist, Sanchez is skilled in technical computer work, which was a plus working with Metro.

Harsh chemotherapy exacted a toll on her body, but she didn’t show it, Steinmetz said. She had an infectious personality that brightened days for everyone else. When the cancer went into remission at one point, her colleagues threw her a small party at work. Her smile illuminated the room.

Eventually, she applied for a full-time job with the unit, and got it. Many police veterans go through their career without meeting someone like her, Steinmetz said. “The sky’s the limit for someone like her.”

Sanchez was born and raised in Las Vegas, joining the National Guard in 2007 after graduating from high school because her single mother couldn’t pay for her college tuition. A deployment four years later landed her in Afghanistan for a 14-month tour.

Afterward, she came back to Las Vegas and joined Metro. The cancer was discovered during an annual physical in late 2018. Doctors in 2019 removed a lung and prescribed chemotherapy, which sent the cancer into remission.

The joy lasted about nine months.

Click to enlarge photo

Metro Police officers Crystal Sanchez and Cameron Sims are married in the hospital. Sanchez is battling stage 4 lung cancer.

Late last year, she returned to the doctor worried about what she thought was a sinus infection. The doctor ordered a scan that revealed the cancer had not only returned, it had spread throughout her body. Doctors told her she could “ride out” the cancer with no treatments and live for possibly another three to six months. She also was given the option of undergoing another round of chemotherapy, which doctors estimated, depending on its success, could extend her life another nine to 12 months or more.

Sanchez is well aware how heinous cancer is, Sims said.

She was only 5 years old when her father died of cancer. It’s the same age Evelyn was when Sanchez was told about her terminal cancer diagnosis.

The scenario devastates Sanchez, Sims said.

“Her daughter’s been a blessing, you know. She just makes me laugh every day and smile and that’s her little bundle of joy, and you know that’s what Crystal lives for and that’s what she’s continuing to fight for,” Sims said about his wife and his stepdaughter.

Steinmetz remembers the gut punch he felt when he learned Sanchez’s cancer had returned. His mother and father-in-law were also diagnosed around the same time, and he shares with them how brave Sanchez is in fighting hard to defeat it.

Sanchez has affected so many people, even ones she hasn’t met, without realizing it, Steinmetz said. He hopes the community does the same.

Sims says all he can do now is be there for his wife and stepdaughter.

“Evelyn’s been amazing, and she’s given me a new perspective of life. I’m just blessed that Crystal brought her into my life, and Crystal’s in my life,” he said.

Sims said he knew he wanted to marry Sanchez when he first saw her walk into a briefing at Metro’s Southeast Area Command where they went from colleagues, to friends, and then boyfriend-girlfriend a couple of weeks after he invited her for a stroll at Town Square.

It was love at first sight, Sims admits, noting that it doesn’t matter if it sounds cliche, because it is real.

Sanchez could understand Sims better than anyone he’d ever met, he said. Being a cop means having different experiences, and he could open up about anything, including career stresses.

They were looking forward to their honeymoon in Paris and Spain, where they would catch a Barcelona soccer game.

Sanchez also knew how to get Sims out of his comfort zone, and she showed him different sides of her that only made him fall more in love.

Both share a liking for jazz, but one day she surprised him with an invite to a concert featuring rock band Fall Out Boy, his first.

“I didn’t know this Crystal prior to, but man, when that music went on, she was jumping and screaming like a 6-year-old girl. … It was just a beautiful moment to see her kind of like let loose and be that free spirit and no worries.”

Sims added, “Not many people get to see every side of a person, and I’m just appreciative that I got to see, you know, that side that she really cherished.”

In a recent interview, Sanchez spoke about her prognosis, and how she wants to cherish every moment with her daughter.

“The house, the cars, the payments and all this stuff, I almost don’t even care … what I wanted the most is to spend time with her.”

Literature and movies warn us about this, Sanchez said. “How someone’s on their deathbed and they’re saying to love each other more, and pray to God more, go to church, be kind to one another,” she paused. “It’s real. People say that for a reason.”

As if it were possible, she said she tried to be nicer now and laugh at life. “I try to be more patient, more loving, be more forgiving,” she said, pausing to cry. “You don’t have to wait until you’re on your deathbed to do it,” she said. “I do it now.”

She said she was incredibly thankful to those who have supported her in her illness.

“There’s not enough hugs I can give, or handshakes or high-fives,” she said about everyone who’s been there for her. “It’s so much more.”

Sanchez’s colleagues have organized a GoFundMe account to raise money for Evelyn’s future college tuition and any lingering medical expenses.