Husband Enlists to Get Wife Back Into Chemotherapy

Unemployed Wis. man couldn't afford ballooning health costs, signs on with Army

By Will McCahill, Newser Staff

Posted Oct 19, 2009 8:41 PM CDT

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Husband Enlists to Get Wife Back Into Chemotherapy — Blood cleansed of toxic chemotherapy drugs is pumped back into the body of a California patient. (AP Photo)

Out of a job and unable to find work as the recession grinds on, a Wisconsin man desperate to find affordable chemotherapy for his cancer-stricken wife turned to Uncle Sam, but not for a handout—Bill Caudle, 39, enlisted in the Army. “Seventy percent of the reason is for the insurance,” his mother tells the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. “He told me, ‘I’ve always wanted to do something for my country and I have to help Michelle.”

Bill Caudle departed Oct. 6 for basic training, leaving Michelle, 40, and their three kids, aged 21-15, for a 4-year stint in the service. Michelle Caudle missed a week of chemotherapy for her ovarian cancer before Bill’s Army coverage kicked in, and is scheduled for her next session tomorrow.
(More Bill Caudle stories.)

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