Inspirational Stories

Lew developed leukemia from being in a building at Ground Zero on 9/11. He returned there every day afterward for over a year, breathing in the carcinogenic ash which compromised his immune system. He is currently in the World Trade Center Health Program.

In 2012, he was diagnosed with acute myelogenous leukemia (AML) and was told he’d have a year to live. But as he likes to say, he is like a Timex watch that takes a lickin’ and keeps on tickin’.

As a result of two bone marrow transplants in 2014, he developed graft versus host disease (GVHD).

He is a peer mentor with the National Bone Marrow Transplant Link (nbmtLINK) and Imerman Angels. By focusing on his mental health and helping others, he is now in a better place than he was in 2012 despite ongoing GVHD symptoms.

In 2013, he retired from his work as an IT professional and is now an avid reader of history books, most recently reading books on Hamilton, Teddy Roosevelt, and the Civil War.

Written by friend.