GUILDERLAND — Doug Lawton spent his life, from his teenage years until just a few months before his death, as a volunteer with the Guilderland Center Fire Department.

He died of colon cancer in 2014 at the age of 57.

This will be the second year that his fellow firefighters honor his memory and his fight against cancer, with the Douglas C. Lawton Memorial Golf Tournament. This year’s event will be July 20 at Orchard Creek Golf Club.

Lawton battled cancer for three years, his wife, Nancy, said, but did not let it define  him. He continued to go on fire calls, and to work as a driver trainer.

“He took what he had to take and went on with his normal life,” his wife said, throughout nearly the whole three years of his treatment. He would go to work very early in the morning and come home mid-afternoon. Then, Nancy Lawton said, “Most days he would go out to the firehouse.”

At one point, she said, he was on chemotherapy that required him to wear a pack under his shirt so that his blood could be infused with medicine regularly. “When it was quiet,” his wife said, “you could hear the machine start up every couple of minutes.”

“It’s a brotherhood,” Lawton said of the fire department where her husband rose to the rank of captain, was a past president, and was treasurer at the time of his death. He was also the fire district secretary-treasurer when he died.

“It feels wonderful to give back to the New York Oncology and Hematology Community Cancer Foundation,” said Lawton. This is the group that will receive part of the proceeds from this year’s event. The foundation was instrumental in her husband’s treatment, she said.

“We spent three years of our lives at NYOH, going to doctor visits and chemo treatments,” she recalled.

Proceeds from last year’s tournament were donated to Caring Bridge, an online website that allow patients’ loved ones to give updates on the progress of their treatment and their frame of mind. As the organization’s website states, “No more repeating the same story over and over. Connect with all of your family and friends at once, giving you time to focus on what matters.”

Nancy Lawton and her husband — whose father was also a firefighter — used Caring Bridge for three years, she said, which was “so helpful to us.”

“I’ve known him all his life,” Guilderland Center firefighter Don Albright, who is also the commissioner of the fire district, said of Lawton.

“There wasn’t any job in the fire department he wouldn’t touch,” Albright continued. “He’s hard to replace. We feel it here, his loss.”