Cancer survivor celebrates his ‘second’ birthday

  • Published
  • By Jennifer Brugman
  • 60th AMW Public Affairs
TRAVIS AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. --  An Airman with the 60th Maintenance Operations Squadron is alive because of a bone marrow donation. 

Staff Sgt. Larry Tudor was diagnosed with acute myelogeneous leukemia in October 2003 after months of weakness. 

“[It was like] he was walking with weights on his legs,” said Sergeant Tudor’s wife, Renee. “He had no energy.” 

After a battery of tests, it was revealed that Sergeant Tudor’s red blood cell volume was one-third of a healthy person’s. 

“The doctor came in and told the technicians not to dilute what little blood he had,” Mrs. Tudor said. 

The doctors tried to discover if he was bleeding internally. It was after a week of tests that they did a bone marrow biopsy. 

“All during that time, they never mentioned cancer,” Mrs. Tudor said. “They asked us to come in because they wouldn’t tell us [the results] over the phone.” 

“I don’t know the best way to deliver the news you have cancer,” Sergeant Tudor said.
“The hem-hawing only made it worse,” Mrs. Tudor said. 

Though they finally knew what was wrong, the diagnosis certainly wasn’t cause for celebration. 

“I just thought, ‘They handed my husband a death sentence. What am I going to do without him?’” Mrs. Tudor said. “I went through so many emotions I was confused then I was angry and scared.” 

Sergeant Tudor was diagnosed on a Thursday. By Saturday morning, the family needed to be on the road to Lackland Air Force Base, Texas, for him to begin eight months of treatment. 

People from Sergeant Tudor’s squadron stopped by their house and helped them pack up everything they needed and took care of everything, including dis-enrolling their children from local schools and reenrolling them at school in Lackland AFB. 

“I kind of lost it that [Friday] night,” Mrs. Tudor said. “It was a bad night. I didn’t really know how many friends we had here until that night.” 

A bone marrow drive took place here while Sergeant Tudor was at Lackland receiving treatment. He needed to have his replaced in order to go into remission. Although, he eventually received replacement marrow from his mother, more than 500 people registered to donate bone marrow at that drive. 

April 13, 2004 is what he considers his ‘second’ birthday as it’s the day he received his transplant. 

Sergeant Tudor credits his success at beating cancer to an odd compliment from a friend. 

“He said to me, ‘Of all the people I know, you were the best person to get it,’” Sergeant Tudor said. The staff sergeant went on to explain that the friend didn’t mean that he deserved to have cancer but that if anyone had the attitude and will needed to beat leukemia it was Sergeant Tudor. 

Travis is sponsoring a base-wide bone marrow drive May 16 from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the Base Exchange in order to help people like Sergeant Tudor celebrate as many birthdays as possible.