For the last two years, I\u2019ve had a constant companion, one that\u2019s made me feel embarrassed and scared and vulnerable. Yet it\u2019s also opened me up to people and experiences more wonderful than I could have ever imagined. Cancer. It\u2019s more than a diagnosis, more than a disease. It\u2019s a journey, one that some of you have been on too, though perhaps not as publicly.<\/p>\n
Not that I set out to go public about desmoplastic melanoma, the rare and aggressive form of skin cancer I\u2019ve been dealing with. I\u2019d already had a tumor in my chest removed. Then my cancer recurred, and in February 2016, I was in the hospital for a second sur\u00adgery, to remove a tumor under my arm. While I was waiting to go into the OR, I thought maybe I should let the PR per\u00adson at ESPN know. For 20 years, I\u2019ve been covering college sports from the sidelines, interviewing people, but I\u2019d never been the subject of the story; it\u2019s the athletes and coaches who are. They\u2019re the stars.<\/p>\n