Beloved sportscaster Jamie Campbell 'sees life differently' following cancer diagnosis
Sportscaster Jamie Campbell has always been active. But he says he lives life with greater zest since being diagnosed with a common blood cancer in January 2021.
“It was a random blood test,” says the host of Toronto Blue Jays telecasts. “So truthfully, after I had gotten the blood test, I wasn’t expecting a phone call. And when that call came in, it revealed this diagnosis of CLL.”
Campbell said he knew about leukemia but had never heard of CLL, also known as chronic lymphocytic leukemia.
“It’s one of the most common forms of blood cancer that affects about 2,000 patients, newly diagnosed in Canada every year,” Dr. Christine Chen, a hematologist at Toronto’s Princess Margaret Cancer Centre, told CTV News Toronto.
While the majority of patients are diagnosed in their 60s and 70s, Chen notes she also has patients in their 20s.
CLL is highly treatable, and patients without symptoms do not require any treatment.
That’s how it was for Campbell in the first 14 months after diagnosis, until recently.
“My white blood cell count became alarmingly high and I had lymph nodes exploding out of my armpits and my neck, and my spleen had grown. And that was the indication that it was time to be treated,” he said.
Campbell was put on medications and six weeks ago, he started taking Brukinsa, a new drug recently approved by Health Canada.
While it isn’t a cure, the hope is that patients like Campbell can live full lives while taking this drug. By the time it’s no longer effective for them, a new medication will be available.
Campbell, now 56, says, if anything, his workout regimen has grown more intense since his diagnosis. His doctors have said maintaining his fitness is key and he’s eager to stay active while he can.
For Campbell, he says he sees his diagnosis as a blessing in disguise.
“As odd as that may sound, in my case it has, because I see life differently. I spend time with the people I love in a different manner” he said. “It’s almost like a light shines on them that I never got to enjoy prior to this diagnosis.”
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
NEW Is there a cost to convenience? Canada approves new cancer immunotherapy treatment
A new cancer treatment recently approved in Canada promises to cut treatment time down to just minutes, but experts have differing opinions on whether it's what's best for patients.
Air Canada walks back new seat selection policy change after backlash
Air Canada has paused a new seat selection fee for travellers booked on the lowest fares just days after implementing it.
Canada's new dental program offering hope of free care to millions but many dentists aren't signed up
A new Canadian dental care program is offering the hope of free care to millions, but while 1.7 million people have signed up for the plan, only about 5,000 dentists have done the same.
Province boots mayor and council in small northern Ont. town out of office
An ongoing municipal strike, court battles and revolt by half of council has prompted the province to oust the mayor and council in Black River-Matheson.
King Charles III returns to public duties with a trip to a cancer charity
King Charles III will return to public duties on Tuesday when he visits a cancer treatment charity, beginning his carefully managed comeback after the monarch’s own cancer diagnosis sidelined him for three months.
NDP says Ottawa's new grocery task force isn't living up to government promises
The federal government says the task force it created to monitor and investigate grocery retailers' practices has not conducted any probes and doesn't have a mandate to take enforcement action.
A group of Toronto tenants have been on a rent strike for a year and say there's no resolution in sight
Dozens of tenants in Toronto's Thorncliffe Park area have now been withholding their rent for one year, and it’s unclear when the dispute will end.
U.K. police arrest man wielding a sword in east London, 5 people are taken to the hospital
A man wielding a sword attacked members of the public and two police officers on Tuesday in the east London community of Hainault before being arrested, police said.
Archeologists search for remnants of Halifax's 250-year-old wall that surrounded the city
Archeologist Jonathan Fowler is using ground-penetrating radar to search for historic evidence of the massive wall that surrounded Halifax more than 250 years ago.