9/11 Responder Ken Tregellas Recalls Ground Zero Service 25 Years Later After Stage 4 Cancer
Updated
Updated · Fox News · Sep 10
9/11 Responder Ken Tregellas Recalls Ground Zero Service 25 Years Later After Stage 4 Cancer
1 articles · Updated · Fox News · Sep 10
Summary
Ken Tregellas said he would still have gone to Ground Zero even knowing the work would later be linked to his cancer, calling the service an honor 25 years after 9/11.
For months in 2001, Tregellas oversaw The Salvation Army’s Red Zone operation in Lower Manhattan, where six tents offered meals, rest, clothing, counseling and prayer to recovery workers and families searching for loved ones.
Ten years after the attacks, doctors found cancer in his tonsils and later diagnosed stage 4 mantle B-cell lymphoma; after chemotherapy, a stem cell transplant and years on ibrutinib, he said he has been in remission since February.
The long health toll remains broad: cancer certifications tied to 9/11 exposure have risen to 57,044 this year from 3,204 in 2015, with more than 69 reported cancer types among responders, survivors and nearby residents.
Now speaking to students who know 9/11 mainly from history books, Tregellas says preserving the memory of the attacks and the solidarity that followed is part of his mission.