Payson Police Department rallies for officer’s wife who has cancer
Alex Knighton brushes Kara Knighton's, his wife, hair back at the Huntsman Cancer Institute on Friday, Nov. 30, 2018, in Salt Lake City. Kara was in the hospital to receive chemotherapy for the Stage IV Ewing's-like sarcoma she is currently fighting.
Kara Knighton, right, and her husband, Alex Knighton, left, listen to a doctor explain medicines and treatments that Kara will be using at the Huntsman Cancer Institute on Friday, Nov. 30, 2018, in Salt Lake City. Knighton was set to be released later that evening.
Kara Knighton, right, and her husband, Alex Knighton, left, watch "Dennis the Menace" at the Huntsman Cancer Institute on Friday, Nov. 30, 2018, in Salt Lake City.
Kara Knighton and Alex Knighton hold hands while watching "Dennis the Menace" at the Huntsman Cancer Institute on Friday, Nov. 30, 2018, in Salt Lake City.
A nurse checks on Kara Knighton as her husband, Alex Knighton, watches at the Huntsman Cancer Institute on Friday, Nov. 30, 2018, in Salt Lake City.
Kara Knighton and Alex Knighton are reflected in her treatment board at the Huntsman Cancer Institute on Friday, Nov. 30, 2018, in Salt Lake City.
Alex Knighton removes a Roku device to attach to the television in Kara Knighton's room at the Huntsman Cancer Institute on Friday, Nov. 30, 2018, in Salt Lake City.
Kara Knighton speaks with her husband, Alex Knighton, at the Huntsman Cancer Institute on Friday, Nov. 30, 2018, in Salt Lake City.
Before he joined the Payson Police Department, Officer Alex Knighton hated cops.
He never intended to become a police officer, but over the years he couldn’t shake the feeling that he needed to join the police academy.
“That was one of the biggest blessings of my life was getting into this field,” Knighton said.
He graduated from the academy in July 2017 and started working in Payson the same month. But one year later his wife, Kara, was diagnosed with cancer.
When the officers at the Payson Police Department heard the news, they rallied to cover shifts, collect donations and offer support to one of their newest officers.
“Had I been with any other department, I believe they would have supported me, but not like the support I have within the Payson community,” Knighton said.
In November, at 28-years-old, Kara Knighton was diagnosed with an aggressive form of Ewing-like sarcoma.
At the time, she worked as an entitlements manager at the gas station franchise Maverick. She traveled across the nation and worked with cities to approve new locations for gas stations.
But in June, she found a small lump on her leg and went from walking slowly to using a cane to riding in a wheelchair. She could only sleep for 30 minutes every night in an upright position with her legs down.
Each time she typed in her symptoms in Google, the search result pointed to cancer. But her husband did not believe it until after the results from an MRI in November.
“She’s never going to let me live that down. She knew from the get-go and she’s never going to let me forget it,” Alex Knighton said with a laugh.
Doctors believed the cancer is an extremely rare anomaly since the stage IV cancer did not meet every marker for Ewing’s sarcoma.
“It was kind of a sigh of relief the moment we finally figured out what it was called. We could give it a name other than the curse words we had been calling it,” Alex Knighton said.
He first met Kara in high school at South Jordan and sat behind her in an English class. He always thought she hated him, but next May is their seventh year marriage anniversary.
At the time of the diagnosis, Kara Knighton only had a 15 percent chance of recovery.
“It takes a lot to get emotions to rise out of a cop,” Alex Knighton said. “All those fears and everything else just piling on, and then all of a sudden I get a text message from my sergeant.”
The same day of the diagnosis, Sgt. Austin Cobbley texted Knighton and asked if the Police Department could create different charity accounts to collect donations for the cancer treatment.
The department posted a message on Facebook asking for donations through PayPal, Venmo and an America First Credit Union charitable account. As of Friday, the Facebook post had been shared almost 600 times.
“Within minutes, if not seconds of that (post) going up, my phone starting blowing up. Emails, texts, messages, Facebook posts, Venmo, everything,” Alex Knighton said. “The monetary donations, in all honesty, is what is helping us survive.”
The department is also donating funds from a facial hair charity event that lasts from October through December.
So far, Alex Knighton estimated the total donations were around $8,000 and helped the couple pay for diagnostics and chemotherapy treatment.
Officers also volunteered to cover shifts whenever he needed to drive his wife to the Huntsman Cancer Institute in Salt Lake City.
Alex Knighton specifically remembered one instance when an officer relieved him halfway through a 14-hour shift so he could go home and help his wife with a medical emergency.
“This line of work is all about service,” Cobbley said. “When Officer Knighton started working for the Police Department, it was obvious he had this unrivaled energy and enthusiasm to serve the citizens of Payson.”
The chemotherapy treatment has been going well, and last week Kara Knighton started using a walker to move around the hospital.
“The moment that you joined a law enforcement agency is the moment your family grew to 800,000 plus,” Alex Knighton said. “It’s never proven so true.”
