Will Peoples: The People's Champion

By Nicholas Malfitano

If one was to personify words such as “selfless” and “altruism”, one conversation with Will Peoples would likely be enough to convince that he is a candidate for such definitions.

Peoples, a 32 year-old athletic trainer and married father of two children in Philadelphia, was diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) earlier this year. It’s one of the more devastating forms of that cancer, characterized by attack to the lymphoid line of blood cells and rapid progression; one which necessitates immediate treatment if one is to survive it.

And yet, Peoples’s focus was then and is now on other people: Both those who have helped him battle the disease and the impact it has had on his family, and also those he now seeks to help in turn.

For the aptly-named Peoples, his life journey continues.

It’s a journey which was interrupted by his leukemia diagnosis in February.

“I went into the hospital for in-patient therapy. I had [undergone] a series of chemo and I went into remission for about three months. Then, I had a bone marrow transplant from my father, who was my donor,” Peoples recalled.

At that time, Peoples’s doctors spoke with Mike Rowe, founder of Legacy of Hope, to connect the two men in the hopes that the organization could assist Peoples and his family.