Openly gay Major League Baseball (MLB) executive Billy Bean announced he has been diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia and that he needs a donor for a bone-marrow transplant, Gay City News noted.
USA Today initially reported the news. The outlet also reported that Catalina Villegas, 36a collegiate tennis player at Louisiana's Northwestern State University before becoming MLB's director of diversity, equity and inclusionis recovering from breast-cancer surgery and six aggressive rounds of chemotherapy.
Bean, 59, is the MLB's senior vice president of diversity, equity and inclusion. He played professionally for a decade, coming out after retiring.
"Mentally, it's a new challenge," Bean told USA Today. "I've been fit my whole life, but there have been some nights where I can not recognize how my body feels. I still can not enjoy food.
"I'm not angry, I'm hopefulbut it hit me really, really hard. I spent 21 days in a hospital with my immune system compromised, I couldn't have visitors. It was a very isolating experience, especially when you don't know what the outcome is."
"It's such a horrible disease, it's tough when you don't know what's going to happen," said Villegas, who's married to Jennifer Crocker-Villegas.
Bean is married to Greg Baker.
MLB and its Clubs recently organized a charity auction during Baseball's Annual Winter Meetings to benefit Stand Up To Cancer, a press release noted. The Dec. 7 auction was in honor of Bean and Villegas.
Andrew Davis