‘Tears of joy’: Tamara Taggart celebrates milestone in cancer fight

For the first time in three years, Tamara Taggart woke up and didn’t take a pill.

Twice a day, the CTV News anchor took medication to lessen her chances of recurrence of a very rare and life-threatening form of cancer.

But on Wednesday evening, the mother-of-three took her last dose of cancer medication.

She describes the moment as exciting, but also terrifying.

“Good riddance to my numerous side-effects. No more fatigue, muscle cramping, crappy hair, brutal immune system or water retention,” she said after taking the “last two miracle workers.”

Tamara’s journey through cancer – and recovery – has been a long and arduous one.

In January 2012, after months of experiencing symptoms including nausea, fatigue and chronic headaches, the newscaster passed out in the studio washroom at CTV News.

After being rushed to hospital, doctors found a fist-sized tumour that had been growing inside of her for several years. It had ruptured.

Surgeons eventually removed a 10-centimetre gastrointestinal stromal tumour from her small intestine, a painful procedure that took nearly five hours.

Commonly referred to in the medical community as GIST, the rare sarcoma only affects 15 in a million people.

Ahead of this year’s $5-million BC Cancer Foundation’s Inspiration Gala, which she chaired, Tamara shared the story about her own fight against the awful disease that almost took her life.

“The worst part about the whole experience was the idea of dying and leaving my children. The idea of that absolutely terrified me,” she said.

Her treatment has included targeted biologic therapy, a relatively new tool in the fight against GIST.

“That’s one of the first things my oncologist said when I saw him. He said ’14 years ago you would have died,’” she said.

Considered high-risk, without taking the drugs Tamara had a 51 per cent chance of recurrence without taking the drugs.

After three years of therapy, her risk has been cut in half.

The longtime broadcaster says she knows she’s not out of the woods yet, but is optimistic for what lies ahead.

“I recognize that I have many anxious days ahead and I’ll be watched closely for the rest of my life. But right now, right this minute… I have tears of joy streaming down my face.”