Former NYPD detective and September 11th first responder Lou Alvarez has died after a long and hard-fought battle with cancer.

Alvarez entered hospice care days after testifying before Congress, in a bid to convince lawmakers that the 9/11 Victim Compensation Fund for first responders and recovery workers who worked at the scene for weeks, needed to be extended indefinitely.

A House panel approved extending the life of the fund indefinitely earlier this month, and Senator Mitch McConnell announced this week the senate will vote on a bill to do the same. It's a vindication of Alvarez' and others' fight to make the fund permanent.

Alvarez testified he had undergone 68 rounds of chemotherapy since being diagnosed with cancer in 2016.

He was a former U.S. Marine, and worked as a bomb squad detective for the NYPD.

Alvarez was 53 years old.