NEW YORK - Douglas Grimmett, a 12-year-old leukemia survivor got the experience as a lifetime on Tuesday as he spent the day as honorary sheriff in Suffolk County.
Sworn in by Suffolk County Sheriff Errol Toulon, Jr., Grimmett’s experience is part of the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society’s Random Acts of Light initiative, designed to bring light to the darkness of cancer for a pediatric survivor or patient.
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12-year-old cancer survivor is ‘Sheriff for a Day’ in Suffolk County
Douglas Grimmett, a 12-year-old leukemia survivor got the experience as a lifetime on Tuesday as he spent the day as honorary sheriff in Suffolk County.
The day was special both for Grimmett, who was diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukemia in 2013 and received his last chemotherapy treatment in 2016, but also for Sherriff Toulon, Jr., who is a two-time cancer survivor himself.
“Just thinking about my own personal experience of going through the chemotherapy and radiation and I was an adult going through this, but to think about a 12-year-old or a 10-year-old young man that has to go through the treatment was a little emotional for me,” Toulon, Jr. said.
Grimmett’s deputy for the day was his 10-year-old brother Ben, and together the pair got a behind-the-scenes tour of some of the finest vehicles in the Suffolk County Sheriff’s Office has to command.