CTV News Calgary anchor speaks out about cancer diagnosis: 'It could help someone'

When she heard about actress Kirstie Alley’s death from colon cancer earlier this month, CTV News Calgary Senior Anchor Jocelyn Laidlaw said she was inspired to speak up about her own cancer diagnosis.

In a recent Twitter video, Laidlaw spoke openly about how shocked she was by Alley’s death. Laidlaw went on leave in November after she was diagnosed with cancer, and although she was initially intending to keep some details private, now she’s opening up in order to raise awareness, hoping to inspire others to get screened and to talk more about this deadly type of cancer.

Speaking to CTV’s Your Morning on Monday, she said she has had a string of good days recently.

“I’ve left chemo behind for now, it’ll start up again on Boxing Day,” she said. “But yeah, I’m feeling pretty good, actually. Any day without nausea when you’re in cancer treatment is a good day.”

Laidlaw has metastatic colorectal cancer. Often simply referred to as colon cancer, it’s a cancer that grows in the colon or rectum. According to the Canadian Cancer Society, it is estimated that around 1 in 18 Canadian women and 1 in 14 Canadian men will develop colorectal cancer during their lifetime and 1 in 40 women and 1 in 34 men will die from it.

Laidlaw said she thought she would never share the specifics of her diagnosis.

“It’s a ‘down there’ cancer that a lot of people don’t like to talk about, and I include myself in that group,” she said. “It felt embarrassing and very private.”

However, Alley’s death struck her — not just because of their shared diagnosis, but because Alley’s family revealed that she had only just found out about the cancer before she died.

“I was horrified, I was stunned,” Laidlaw said.

Her cancer was also discovered late into its development. Often there aren’t many early symptoms of colon cancer, making it even more important to get regular screenings.

That’s the main message that Laidlaw wants to express.

“I just knew that speaking out could help someone,” she said. “If one person could hear what I went through, they might identify with the symptoms, or ignoring the symptoms, or no symptoms at all, and they might take it upon themselves to get checked, and that’s my real goal here is for other people to avoid going through what I’m going through.”

She explained that she started having gastrointestinal symptoms years ago, before the pandemic hit, but that these symptoms started out so slight and built up so slowly that it was hard to connect the dots.

Last spring, she found a lymph node in her lower abdomen that was “like a marble, it was hard”.

Her doctor believed it could be the aftereffects of COVID-19 at first, and every test that was run found nothing wrong.

As this went on, the gastrointestinal symptoms were steadily worsening over the summer. Although she was advised to simply continue monitoring the lymph node, Laidlaw decided she wanted it taken out.

“I insisted that it be surgically removed,” she said. “And boy am I glad I did. Four days later, they called to tell me it was full of cancer.”

How Kirstie Alley's tragic death inspired me to share more about my cancer diagnosis.#colorectalcancer#cancerjourney#imnotaquitter pic.twitter.com/LOTC1G911U

— Jocelyn Laidlaw (@CTVJLaidlaw) December 8, 2022

Doctors had to frantically search for the source of the cancer, as it was clear that it hadn’t originated in the lymph nodes, but had spread there.

Days later, she had her answer: it was colorectal cancer.

She described this experience as a “nightmare I wouldn’t wish on anyone,” but added that a strange upside has been the huge wave of love and support she has received from across Canada since sharing her story.

“Strangers, survivors,” she said, adding that the stories from survivors have been “so moving.”

“So many survivors tell me, ‘you’ve got this, you can do this,’ when the stats would convince you otherwise, or your own fears would have you thinking otherwise,” she said. “Those messages have been life-changing.”