Longtime Cleveland news anchor Nichole Vrsansky told viewers on Tuesday, November 10, that she has colon cancer — and that a routine screening with no warning signs at all is what found it, according to the Akron Beacon Journal.
Vrsansky shared a picture of herself out of surgery on her Facebook page on November 10, the Beacon Journal reported. Writing on Facebook, as reported by the Beacon Journal, she said: “I went in for a routine screening. I never expected what it would uncover. Invasive adenocarcinoma, colon cancer. The words took my breath away.”
The detail she kept coming back to, according to the Beacon Journal’s report of her post, was the absence of any symptom. “I had NO symptoms. None. A routine screening found my cancer early,” she wrote, as reported by the Beacon Journal — and she said she was thankful doctors were able to catch it early.
Her announcement quickly turned into a public plea. As reported by the Beacon Journal, she urged readers: “Please, if you’re 45 or older and haven’t had a colonoscopy, schedule one” — telling followers not to wait for symptoms and to encourage the people they love to make the appointment too, because, in her words as reported, that screening may have saved her life.
Vrsansky is a familiar face across Northeast Ohio. A Cleveland-area native, she joined Channel 19 (WOIO) in 2015 and previously worked at WIFR in Rockford, Illinois, according to the Beacon Journal. She graduated from Loyola University Chicago and the Northwestern University Medill School of Journalism, and she anchors on weekdays at noon, 3 p.m. and 4 p.m.
For viewers, the announcement explains an absence they were about to notice. An anchor who appears at noon, 3 p.m. and 4 p.m. every weekday is part of the daily routine in thousands of Northeast Ohio homes, and Vrsansky chose to tell those viewers herself — in her own words, with a photo from her own hospital stay — rather than let a sudden disappearance from the desk become a rumor. The Beacon Journal reported she will be back on air soon after recovering from her surgery.
Her reasoning for going public was practical, not sentimental. Everything in her message, as reported by the Beacon Journal, pointed back to the screening itself: she felt fine, she had no symptoms, and a test she could easily have postponed is the reason her cancer was found while it was still, in her telling, early. That is the part of her story she asked Northeast Ohio to act on — not sympathy, but appointments.
What we know — and what we’re still waiting on
What we know: Vrsansky has been diagnosed with invasive adenocarcinoma — colon cancer — found through a routine screening despite no symptoms; she has had surgery, posting a photo of herself out of surgery on November 10; and she has said, as reported by the Beacon Journal, that she will be back on air soon after recovering from her surgery. The Beacon Journal reported that many people responding to her post said they are praying for her recovery, and some shared their own experiences with the same diagnosis.
What we’re still waiting on: Vrsansky has not, in the announcement reported Tuesday, shared a stage, a further treatment plan, or a specific date for her return to the anchor desk. Those details are hers to share when — and if — she chooses, and NewsForce247 will update readers only with what she or her station make public.
Her story lands in a region where community health work is constantly in the news, from COSI’s state-funded addiction-prevention exhibit in Columbus to school-based health centers expanding care in Southeast Ohio — different work, built on the same idea that earlier is better.
What happens next is recovery first. Vrsansky has said she will be back on air soon after recovering from surgery, and in the meantime her message to Northeast Ohio is the same one she gave her followers on Tuesday: if you are 45 or older and due — or overdue — book the appointment. Don’t wait.
Everyone at NewsForce247 wishes Nichole Vrsansky a full and speedy recovery.
Photo: Erik Drost, CC BY