Lauren "L.T." Trudo has been battling for a long time with trying to stay ahead with bills and even more so with his health. After being diagnosed with Type 1 Diabetes (T1D) as an adult over the age of 30, Lauren has done his best to adapt to this big change in his life. He has battled to keep his T1D under control, but like in many cases, it's a journey with many ups and downs. This also makes it extremely difficult to stay employed as days needed for time off can come without warning or make jobs too difficult to perform.

Last December, the week leading up to what was going to be a birthday get-together, LT had another flare-up with his health, missed some time at work, and ultimately was let go. LT loves to work and be active. He really enjoyed working for the schools, and they were understanding in most ways. Shortly after this, LT would find out that this T1D flare-up would be more than that. After going through multiple appointments with doctors, dentists, and visits to the ER, Lauren was finally diagnosed with a 3-to-4-centimeter mass in his mouth. It's been positively tested for cancer. He has an extensive surgery scheduled for May 19th, which is going to take approximately 8 hours. They will be working on his lower jaw, they will need to extract some teeth, parts of his tongue will be removed with the mass and related tissues. Then the surgeon will take a skin graft from his thigh to help rebuild his tongue. He will be in the hospital for about a week. I'm sure the PT and speech therapy will be a process, and we'll have to wait and see about how the cancer is removed and if there is anything further related to it.

Lauren is a great friend and loves his friends (peeps) like they are a part of his family. He enjoys helping others whenever possible. He enjoys promoting everyone's achievements whenever he can, especially when it comes to kids and pets. Kids & pets know it too, he's our guy!! He's passionate about all of his sports teams, music, and everything outdoors, whether it's camping, racing, or sitting by a nice fire. And very proud to be a Clintondale Dragon!

Lauren has a larger battle ahead of him. Myself and with the help of others are doing our best to make sure his bills are being paid along with any other expenses that are required to get through this. We are also working on getting him set up for the future, for when he's ready to get back to doing all of the things he enjoys.

Thank you so much for reading this and for any donations to help Lauren with his fight with Diabetes and Cancer. We thank you for your love and prayers. We will keep his progress updated on this and through social media. And if you could also, please forward & pass along. Thank you again.