Page 33 - October 2021

Lodge 7 asks for help to keep a brother healthy
n BY MITCHELL KRUGEL
Anybody who knows Lodge 7 Field Rep Andrew Cantore thinks of him as the picture of health.
Cantore also goes about his job immaculately and relentlessly. Soft-spoken and knowledgeable in so many matters FOP members face each day, he is a bedrock for the union.
So when Cantore shared at a recent board meet- ing that he is battling a severe and unique auto- immune disease, the news sent a tremor through Lodge 7. The disease has been attacking his organs, hormones and bodily functions.
It is messing with the chemicals in the stomach that signal hunger to the brain. So he has gone for days at a time without eating yet has been gaining weight like he’s eating three pizzas a day.
The treatment that controls the symptoms is chemotherapy. But because it is not cancer, health insurance does not cover all the costs. So Cantore is having to go deep into his pocket and has put his house up for sale to pay for the treatment that en- ables him to endure.
Anybody who knows Cantore can imagine the last thing he would ask is for the Lodge to hold a fundraiser to help him pay for his treatment. Especially with the number of fundraisers taking place for people that he would be the first to insist need it much more.
On Oct. 25, members should come to the FOP Hall for a Mon- day Night Football Fundraiser and Cigar Smokeout to benefit
Cantore to pay for upcoming treatments. From 6-11 p.m., members can watch the Saints play the Se- ahawks, enjoy a good cigar and beverage of choice and give their support to the Field Rep who has been there for them at every turn.
“My mother didn’t even know about this until six months ago,” Cantore commented. “I am that person who doesn’t like to ask people for anything. I believe I was put on this earth to help officers. Regardless of rank, they come first.”
Cantore, 39, has thrived on serving officers. He did that as a facilitator at the academy for six years, and he has done so at the Lodge the past three years,
arriving most mornings at 7 a.m. to do so.
Now when Cantore gets up in the morning and hopes that a cup of coffee will give him the fuel to go for a run, sometimes he can’t even muster that energy. The three-day chemo treatments would get him through, and ini- tially he would be able to go a year or more without needing
another one.
But the cycles have been shortening, the treatment has been
needed more frequently and the medical business, as he calls it, isn’t giving Cantore any financial relief. So he shared his battle with the Lodge 7 board, which stepped up for him right away.
“The eight closest people to me were in the room and it felt good to tell them,” Cantore shared. “And them coming up to me and saying, ‘We’ll figure it out. We’ll be there,’ it’s very heart- warming.”
Lodge 7 Field Rep Andrew Cantore
CHICAGO LODGE 7 ■ OCTOBER 2021 33