From Bucpower.com
http://www.bucpower.com/alexander2603.html
After a near five-year battle and crusade against cancer, former Buccaneer and 10-year NFL veteran Elijah Alexander III passed away Wednesday night. He was 39. Alexander was rushed to the Dallas hospital on Sunday morning after falling into a coma.
Alexander fought to the end just like he did during his football career that began at Dunbar, continued at Kansas State before NFL stops with the Oakland Raiders, Indianapolis Colts, Denver Broncos and Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
It was no different in October of 2005 when he was stricken with multiple myeloma, a rare and incurable cancer of the bone marrow. Alexander, a former 235-pound linebacker, had to undergo chemotherapy and a bone marrow transfusion. At his lowest point, Alexander was a frail 178-pounder who couldn’t shower himself or sit up to eat.
But thanks to chemotherapy and then a stem cell transplant, Alexander battled back to have an active life. He resumed coaching youth football and took up the fight against cancer, especially in children.
"Life is going to knock you down," Alexander said at the time. "Who is going to get up and who is going to stay down? It’s like me being ill. I don’t have time for pity. I have to do what I need to do to get better to take care of my family."
What Alexander began as the Tackle Myeloma Foundation (TMF58) has since become the Tackle Cancer Foundation (TCF), which provides information, support and financial aid to families and caregivers fighting myeloma and childhood cancers.
Alexander used his famous NFL friends and sports celebrities to help with the cause with a charity golf tournament and poker tournament in each of the past four years.
But he was at the forefront of the fight, speaking all over the country and going to numerous conferences as the face of multiple myeloma. He went to Chicago in 2008 to meet with international cancer experts and shared his story with fellow patients during the premier global cancer meeting, sponsored by the American Society of Clinical Oncology.
Back then, his wife Kimberly called it a blessing: "I think it’s more a matter of us realizing how blessed we are and turning it around and trying to be a blessing. It was literally while Elijah was laying in his hospital bed that he said he wanted to raise money for research and children affected by cancer."
Now the fight is over for Alexander. Left to mourn his loss are his wife Kimberly, two sons, Elijah IV, 14, and Evan, 12, mother Camala Ridley of Fort Worth, sister Carn Michelle Alexander of Arlington and brother Shannon Ridley of Dallas.
Clarence Hill, The Star Telegram 25 March 2010
