John Gallups' story - WSFA 12 News
March 30, 2026 — A police chaplain from Wetumpka, Alabama, marked a major milestone Friday. John Gallups rang the discharge bell at Encompass Health Rehabilitation Hospital of Shelby County celebrating the end of his inpatient rehabilitation journey and the next step in his recovery.
Gallups’ recovery follows a year of significant medical challenges. He was diagnosed last April with non-Hodgkin’s follicular lymphoma and later with autoimmune encephalitis, a condition in which the immune system mistakenly attacks healthy brain cells. The illness left him unable to communicate at one point. Following infusion treatments, he began whispering to loved ones.
“It’s a long haul to get back and most people don’t survive it,” said Gallups’ wife, Angie, to WSFA 12 News. “But we know that God is with us all the way.”
Just two weeks earlier, Gallups was unable to walk on his own. After intense therapy, he walked out of the hospital independently. He is now in remission.
“He is in such better shape than he was two weeks ago, so it’s been an amazing transformation,” she said.
A former police officer, Gallups has spent years serving his community. In 2018, he founded the One-to-One Foundation, a peer-based program created to support vulnerable officers before they reach a crisis point.
At his discharge, many of those officers showed up to return the support. Members of the Wetumpka Police Department surprised Gallups as he rang the discharge bell, standing in the lobby to cheer him on.
“They’re an amazing group of guys,” Angie said. “They came and visited him once a week when we were at home, and he loves them and they love him.”
For a man who has long shown up for others, the moment reflected the strength of the community he helped build and the resilience that carried him through his recovery.