CTV News anchor Jocelyn Laidlaw talks cancer battle, importance of early detection
CTV News anchor Jocelyn Laidlaw talks cancer battle, importance of early detection
CTV News anchor Jocelyn Laidlaw says being proactive and getting an early cancer diagnosis is crucial to bettering one’s odds.
The recent death of actress Kirstie Alley has CTV News anchor Jocelyn Laidlaw contemplating her own situation, and the message she can offer to others.
Alley died Dec. 5 at age 71, after a short battle with colon cancer.
Laidlaw, who last month took leave from CTV to undergo treatment following her own cancer diagnosis, says that news hit home.
“I, too, have colorectal cancer and mine was discovered fairly late as well,” she said in a video posted to Twitter.
“They call it the silent killer, and for good reason.
“As Kirstie found out, it can grow inside you with you not even knowing ... for many patients, that's exactly what happens.”
Laidlaw says the decision of Alley’s family to share the kind of cancer the actress had led her to think she should do the same.
“You might not notice the symptoms, or you might and you might put it off as something else – just getting older or changes in your body functions,” she said.
“But the reality is if something changes, it might mean something and you should take it seriously.
“I wish I’d acted sooner on some of the signs and symptoms that I now see were happening quite some time ago.”
It started for Laidlaw with a lymph node that “didn’t feel right.”
She says she had multiple tests and was told multiple times that everything was OK.
But she just wanted the mass gone, and she had it surgically removed.
And then, four days after the procedure, the phone rang.
“They called me to tell me it was full of cancer that was coming from someplace else,” Laidlaw said.
“That's how I discovered that I have metastatic colorectal cancer.”
Laidlaw is currently in her second week of a radiation-only stretch in her treatment.
She says chemotherapy starts up again in a few weeks.
The fight goes on, she says, but she reiterated her belief that being proactive is crucial to bettering one’s odds.
“All too many of us ignore what our bodies are trying to tell us,” she said.
“If your doctor says everything's OK, if you feel deep down inside that something isn't right, you have to act on it.”
Insist, she says.
Or get a different doctor.
Or ask for more tests.
Or get a second opinion.
Or talk to your friends, even if it’s hard.
“I know we don't like to talk about these things, but it can literally save your life,” Laidlaw said.
Convicted murderer Daniel Jolivet, in prison for the past 30 years, has maintained his innocence since the day he was arrested. W5 reviews the evidence he painstakingly assembled while behind bars. W5's documentary 'Buried Evidence' airs Saturday at 7 p.m. on CTV.
The massive white orb drifting across U.S. airspace has triggered a diplomatic maelstrom and is blowing up on social media. A look at what's known about the balloon crossing the U.S. and what isn't.
In the field of cancer treatment, nothing is more important than diagnosing and treating the problem as quickly as possible — but according to new survey data, about one in four Canadian cancer patients report that they are still experiencing cancelled or postponed appointments.
The oldest preserved vertebrate brain has been found in a 319-million-year-old fossilized fish skull that was removed from an English coal mine over a century ago.
A train derailment and resulting large fire prompted an evacuation order and a declaration of a state of emergency in an Ohio village near the Pennsylvania state line on Friday night, covering the area in billows of smoke lit orange by the flames below.
The suspected Chinese surveillance balloon that was found floating over sensitive military sites in the western United States had been tracked by Canada's government since last weekend as it passed through Canadian airspace, sources tell CTV News.
An Edmonton man who received a ticket from the city under the phase 2 residential parking ban earlier this week says his street has finally been plowed — five days after his vehicle was ticketed.
Marc, Seth and Zacary James are the Melisizwe Brothers, and they performed at Jasper Place High School on Friday as part of Edmonton Public School Black History Month celebrations.
Technology in Alberta that is expected to allow doctors to more accurately and effectively treat cancerous tumours with radiation enters clinical trials next week.
A man who took part in four traffic-stopping protests in Metro Vancouver in an effort to save old-growth forests has been given a conditional sentence and six months' probation by a provincial court judge.
The mayors of Port Coquitlam and Port Moody want Nav Canada — the organization that creates flight paths for airports across the country — to pause its plans for a new YVR arrivals route that will direct many large airplanes over their communities.
With all of the Maritimes still under extreme cold warnings Saturday morning, more than 34,000 households and businesses are without power, as of 11 a.m.
A man who took part in four traffic-stopping protests in Metro Vancouver in an effort to save old-growth forests has been given a conditional sentence and six months' probation by a provincial court judge.
An emergency room doctor on Vancouver Island is calling on the leadership of the health authority to resign, saying harassment by Island Health officials is prompting doctors to abandon the region amid a critical shortage of health-care workers.
After being charged with speeding by a city-operated photo radar device, a Toronto family was able to successfully fight the charge in court largely due to one small detail.
Torontonians appear to be returning downtown in greater numbers but the pace of the city’s economic recovery still lags behind many other North American cities, a new study suggests.
Residents from Quebec to Newfoundland and Labrador are waking up this morning to more extreme cold weather. Emergency officials warned people to seek shelter and monitor for frostbite if they had to be outside overnight, as the temperature across much of Eastern Canada was expected to feel like -40 C to -50 C with the wind chill.
A Quebec university study found that nearly three years of the pandemic have had an effect on the travel habits of Quebecers: even with the partial or complete lifting of restrictions, they increasingly prefer to travel at home. The most recent Cahier des tendances published by the Transat Chair in Tourism at the École des sciences de la gestion de l'UQAM revealed that inflation and health measures hurt many Quebecers.
Waterloo regional police issued a robbery warning Thursday evening after they said two convenience stores and a restaurant in Kitchener were robbed within a 30 minute span.
After months of driving around the city with an advertisement for a kidney donor on her bright red car, Debbie Onishenko will soon be able to rip off the decals as her search has ended.
An investigation that lasted almost two years has resulted in moose hunting violation convictions for six people and a lodge in Red Lake in northwestern Ontario.
Convicted murderer Daniel Jolivet, in prison for the past 30 years, has maintained his innocence since the day he was arrested. W5 reviews the evidence he painstakingly assembled while behind bars. W5's documentary 'Buried Evidence' airs Saturday at 7 p.m. on CTV.
Winnipeg police released a new image of a 31-year-old woman who has been missing since early last year on Friday in the hope it may generate new information on her whereabouts.
A fire destroyed a popular paint and hobby shop in Winkler Thursday afternoon with black smoke prompting Winkler police to close off a stretch of Highway 32 for more than an hour.
Saskatchewan is reacting to the removal of controversial amendment G4 to Bill C-21 by the federal Liberals, which banned certain semi-automatic rifles and shotguns.
CTV News anchor Jocelyn Laidlaw says being proactive and getting an early cancer diagnosis is crucial to bettering one’s odds.
