Itasca firefighter Frank Nunez dies after long battle with cancer
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CHICAGO (CBS) -- The Village of Itasca is mourning the death of firefighter Frank Nunez, following his battle with cancer.
Nunez, 34, joined the Itasca Fire Department in 2018. A year later, he started having a sharp pain in his left leg. He was diagnosed with a rare form of soft tissue cancer.
Nunez beat the cancer and it went into remission, but it returned in 2021 in his left lung – and this time it was terminal.
Yet, Nunez kept working.
"He has not missed a day - and could have missed many, many days - but he came to work every single day," Itasca Fir Chief Jack Schneidwind said in September.
Nunez worked until he couldn't anymore. And before leaving the hospital for hospice, he married his girlfriend, Christina, at Northwestern Memorial Hospital.
The two met weeks before Nunez's diagnosis. He wrote on their wedding day: "I knew I would marry her. She was the 'one.'"
Nunez died on Sunday, according to the Associated Fire Fighters of Illinois.
Funeral arrangements are underway.
