What to Know
- Retired NYPD Detective Luis Alvarez, an icon in the fight for 9/11 first responder benefits, died Saturday after a battle with colon cancer
- A wake will be held at Towers Funeral Home in Oceanside and his funeral service is set for 10 a.m. Wednesday at Immaculate Conception Church
- Instead of flowers, Alvarez's family has requested donations in Luis Alvarez's name to charities
Luis Alvarez, the NYPD detective who used his final days to plead with Congress for more benefits for 9/11 first responders, will be laid to rest Wednesday.
A wake for the former detective, who died Saturday after his three-year battle with colon cancer, will be held at Towers Funeral Home in Oceanside, Long Island, Tuesday. His funeral service is set for Wednesday at Immaculate Conception Church in Astoria at 10 a.m.
Instead of flowers, Alvarez's family has requested donations in Luis Alvarez's name to charities like St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, Kids Need More and FealGood Foundation, according to family representative Matt McCauley.
"The Alvarez Family greatly appreciates the respect and outpouring of love and sympathy that has been shown for them in honor or Lou," McCauley said in a statement.
Alvarez, a former NYPD detective who saved people from the rubble on 9/11, was suffering from colon cancer in hospice care, but continued to speak out with one final plea: Permanently extend the 9/11 Victims Compensation Fund Bill, so his fellow first responders could get the health coverage they need.
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Alvarez went down to Capitol Hill, along with Jon Stewart and other 9/11 survivors and first responders, earlier this month to demand Congress extend the funding. He gave emotional testimony that riveted the nation and Capitol Hill, one day before his 69th round of chemotherapy, he said.
The day after he gave that emotional testimony, Alvarez’s liver shut down and doctors told him there was nothing more they could do to treat the cancer he got 16 years after saving anyone he could from the heaping piles death and destruction.
"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. He was at peace with that, surrounded by family. Thank you for giving us this time we have had with him, it was a blessing!" Alvarez's family said in a statement.
Earlier this week, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell promised a vote on a bill to extend the benefits -- after a group of Alvarez's colleagues went to McConnell's office and presented him with the dying detective's badge.
"He exemplified the NYPD motto, 'Fidelis Ad Mortem' or 'Faithful Unto Death.' Detective Lou Alvarez has lost his battle with 9/11-related cancer. An inspiration, a warrior, a friend—we will carry his sword," Chief of Detectives Dermot Shea tweeted Saturday morning.
WATCH THE FULL INTERVIEW WITH ALVAREZ BELOW:
