"Death and I are hardly strangers. In my career as a journalist, I've covered 14 wars, genocides, natural disasters. I've seen tens of thousands of people die in front of me. Most of those deaths were sudden, brutal, painful, often without dignity." -- Leroy SieversLeroy Sievers, after a routine colonoscopy four years ago, was diagnosed with colon cancer. After undergoing surgery, he was diagnosed cancer-free. At the time, he referred to himself as a poster child for early detection and treatment. Earlier this year, he began slurring his words and one side of his face began to droop. Tests revealed a brain tumor. Further tests revealed lung tumors. Sievers asked the doctor for the worst-case scenario -- the doctor gave him six months to live.
Sievers is blogging his fight with cancer five days at week at NPR in My Cancer. The writing reflects the insight and compelling commentary you would expect of a seasoned journalist when chronicling the personal journey on the complicated complex path of cancer -- of fighting for your life and contemplating your death at the same time. The writing is top-rate in thought-provoking authenticity. In addition to his blog, he airs a weekly podcast.
Who is Leroy Sievers? Taken from the bio page of his Morning Edition commentaries and My Cancer blog:
"In May 2006, Leroy Sievers began a Morning Edition commentary on his fight with cancer by saying, "My doctors are trying to kill me."
He worked at ABC News' Nightline for 14 years. Prior to that, Sievers worked at CBS News for almost ten years. During his career, he covered more than a dozen wars, including Desert Storm, Rwanda, Somalia, Kosovo, El Salvador, Nicaragua, and many others. During the invasion of Iraq, he was an embedded journalist with Ted Koppel. Sievers was also responsible for The Fallen, Nightline's tribute to those who died in the war in Iraq.
Sievers has won 12 national news Emmys, two George Foster Peabody Awards, and two Alfred I. DuPont-Columbia University Awards. Since leaving Nightline, Sievers was a guest lecturer at the Annenberg School of Communication at USC, and has traveled to Africa for Human Rights Watch and the International Crisis Group."
If you appreciate excellence in writing, Leroy Sievers blogging My Cancer is a must-read.
1. Leroy-
I take exception to your comment that clinical trials involve unproven drugs. I am a clinical trial participant who had stage 4 squamous cell cancer. I have been in remission for three years and a clinical trial saved my life. A clinical trial is not experimental, it is state of the art treatment for your type of cancer. You have done a great disservice to the cancer community by making such a irresponsible comment. Research is the key to eventually defeating cancer and clinical trials have dramatically improved the cure rate. Clinical trials are responsible for every approach to cancer screening and detection and every cancer treatment that is available today. The more people who are on clinical trials means more hope, more medicines, and more cures.
Posted at 10:33PM on Jul 10th 2006 by Mike Wheeler