CSI: NY Vet Gary Sinise Celebrates Life of His Son Mac, Dead at 33

Matt Webb Mitovich
·2 min read
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CSI: NY vet Gary Sinise on Tuesday shared an emotional, detailed account of his son Mac’s five-and-a-half year battle with a rare form of cancer, which he says ended on Jan. 5.

“The summer of 2018 was a particularly challenging time for our family,” Gary said in a 15,000-word tribute posted to his eponymous foundation’s website. “In June of that year, my wife Moira was diagnosed with stage 3 breast cancer, and after surgery to remove lymph nodes, she began chemotherapy and radiation. Then, on August 8th, we found out that Mac was diagnosed with a very rare cancer called Chordoma.”

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Chordoma, Gary learned with research, is “a one-in-a-million cancer” that originates in the spine and “affects, on average, only 300 people in the U.S. per year. In 70% of the cases the initial tumor can be removed, and it is cured. But in 30% of the cases, perhaps about 90 people per year, the cancer returns.”

Gary’s wife Moira, after treatment, went into remission and has been cancer-free since. Mac, meanwhile, had surgery to remove the initial tumor in September 2018, but a follow-up scan in May 2019 revealed that the Chordoma had come back — and was spreading. “This began a long battle that disabled him more and more as time went on,” Gary wrote.

Mac was a musician and drummer who would occasionally fill in and tour with his father’s Lt. Dan Band (named after the Forrest Gump character), and to the very end — despite being paralyzed from the chest down — he collaborated with friends, peers and his father (on bass) on Resurrection & Revival, an album “with a theme of bringing something that was old or unfinished back to life.”

“The week the album went to press, Mac lost his battle with cancer,” Gary shared. “He died on January 5… and was laid to rest on January 23rd.”

“While our hearts ache at missing him, we are comforted in knowing that Mac is no longer struggling, and inspired and moved by how he managed it,” Gary wrote. “He fought an uphill battle against a cancer that has no cure, but he never quit trying… I am so blessed, fortunate, and proud to be his dad.”

Gary noted that music videos of Mac’s work can be found on Mac Sinise YouTube (“Included with the video of ‘Arctic Circles’ is a special text message from Mac that I found on his phone after his death”), while the album Mac Sinise: Resurrection and Revival will be available soon/may be pre-ordered.

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