Retired police officer and passionate 9/11 victims advocate Luis Alvarez has died at the age of 53 after battling Ground Zero-related cancer. NBC News reported.
Earlier this month, Alvarez made headlines after appearing before Congress alongside talk show host and fellow victims’ compensation advocate Jon Stewart in a bid to make sure a fund meant to compensate 9/11 victims doesn’t run out of money.
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After the devastating attacks on the World Trade Center in 2001, Alvarez spent weeks combing the debris in search of victims.
In 2016, he was diagnosed with colorectal cancer, joining more than 50,000 other people whose illnesses can be traced back to their exposure to toxins released following the collapse of the two towers.
Alvarez had been completing his 69th round of chemotherapy this month when he appeared in Congress, alongside Jon Stewart.
On June 11, he testified at a House Judiciary Committee hearing in an effort to see Congress reauthorize the 9/11 Victims Compensation Fund, which was created after the attack to support those affected by medical expenses and economic losses.
The fund is currently running out of money, and unless it is reauthorized, it will start making cuts to those it has previously benefited.
In his testimony, Alvarez made a passionate speech pleading to Congress to think about the people these cuts would effect — people like himself.
“You all said you would never forget. Well, I’m here to make sure that you don’t,” he said.
At the end of his emotional speech, he received thunderous applause and a standing ovation from those in attendance, including Jon Stewart who was seated right beside him.
The House unanimously passed the 9/11 fund.
Following his appearance, Alvarez said he had believed he would be one of the lucky ones who didn’t become sick prior to his 2016 diagnosis.
“I got sick 16 years after the fact,” he told Fox News . “And there’s workers out there who say, ‘This isn’t going to happen to me. I’m OK. The time has passed.’ The time doesn’t – is not going to pass.”
Just days after the hearing, Alvarez was placed into hospice care.
In a Facebook post , he said he has been admitted into hospice because there’s “nothing else the doctors can do to fight the cancer.”
“I will continue to fight until the Good Lord decides it’s time,” he wrote in the June 19 post.
Now Alvarez’s family have shared the tragic news that he has died at the age of 53.
“It is with peace and comfort, that the Alvarez family announce that Luis (Lou) Alvarez, our warrior, has gone home to our Good Lord in heaven today,” the family wrote in a statement on Facebook. “Please remember his words, ‘Please take care of yourselves and each other.’ We told him at the end that he had won this battle by the many lives he had touched by sharing his three year battle.”
They added, “He was at peace with that, surrounded by family.”
The Ray Pfeifer Foundation also shared the news of Alvarez’s untimely passing on social media.
The non-profit organization, which helps first responders who became ill after 9/11 with medical needs not covered by insurance, wrote, “We lost another 9/11 first responder. Our thoughts are with the family and friends of NYPD Detective Luis Alvarez.”
h/t: NBC News
