ESPN reporter Holly Rowe says her cancer has returned and spread, The Associated Press reported.
“I don’t think about having cancer when I’m out here,” Rowe told AP before she worked the sideline Thursday for a WNBA game between the Minnesota Lynx and host New York Liberty. “Monday, I have a CAT scan and have treatment. I’ll be a cancer patient on Monday. I’m not thinking about it today.”
These are tough times for the sports network. Kathy Berman, wife of Chris Berman, who is arguably the face of the network, died in a car crash last week. The outlet has also conducted massive layoffs.
But Rowe will not be among them. ESPN stated Thursday in an editor’s note to a personal essay by the reporter that her contract had been renewed.
“I promise to repay and thank my bosses at ESPN for sticking by me during the most difficult year of my life,” she wrote. “I don’t take a single moment of this journey for granted.”
In February 2016, doctors removed a tumor from her chest for the second time within a year, according to Sports Illustrated. She has continued to work during her battle with a rare form of melanoma.
“When I say sports have saved my life, I’m not saying that as a joke or lightly,” she told her hometown paper, the Salt Lake Tribune, recently. “It’s given me things to look forward to and every single event I get to, someone is winning or losing.”
Rowe became a regular presence on ESPN in 1998.
