Posted by Bud on February 25, 2010 at 22:01:07:
Channel 2's Derrick Blakley in cancer fight: 'I'm glad at least that they did catch it early'
By Phil Rosenthal, Chicago Tribune
"My birthday was the other day. I was 56. I joke with people that I got cancer for my birthday gift, and that's sobering," WBBM-Ch. 2 reporter Derrick Blakley, a Chicago TV news fixture for more than 20 years who is being treated for multiple myeloma, a form of bone marrow cancer, said by phone Thursday. "It makes you reflect on your life and your career."
It was something that turned up in his blood work while he was being prepped for surgery last November to remedy another ailment, a bum knee, that tipped doctors to the fact Blakley (pictured right) might be dealing with something more serious.
The cancer's effect on his right leg necessitated the use of a cane to minimize the risk of injury until a metal rod could be inserted surgically last week to reinforce it. Chemotherapy will resume later, he said, and he expects a stem cell transplant this summer.
"There's no cure for myeloma," he said. "The bad news is there's no cure for it. The good news is people live with it for (up to) two and three decades. It has to be regulated and monitored carefully and it's something I'll be living with for the rest of my life, but I'm glad at least that they did catch it early."
News of Blakley's illness was first reported earlier Thursday by Chicago Public Radio blogger Robert Feder, who cited a memo Blakley wrote to Channel 2 colleagues telling them of the diagnosis and that he hoped to be on the job "more often than not as the treatment proceeds."
The memo was actually sent Feb. 10, Blakley's birthday. He wasn't necessarily interested in publicizing it at the time, but he also never expected it would remain secret for long. Part of it was he was growing weary of answering questions about the cane.
"I knew if it was out in the newsroom, it was going to get out, but that's different than planting some splashy headline," Blakley said. "I felt I should let my colleagues, the people I work with every day, know ... why I seemed to be emulating, I don't know, Bat Masterson or (TV's Dr.) House or who else it is who's halfway cool and uses a cane. I was just trying to bring them into the loop. The story and the medical history gets a little daunting to retell over and over."
Multiple myeloma affects white blood cells in bone marrow that normally help fight infections, according to the Mayo Clinic's Web site. Bones, immune system, kidneys and red blood cell count can be affected.
"Derrick's CBS colleagues join with his family to wish him a full recovery and rapid return to work," WBBM said in a statement, and Blakley said he has been overwhelmed by the encouragement he has received from those around him.
"Everyone has been completely supportive, and the outlook is really positive," he said. "I didn't want to make a big deal of it. ... That people take time out of their lives and have a place in their hearts to care is just incredible. It really is."
Blakley, who grew up in Chicago, has been at CBS-owned WBBM since June 2003 as an anchor and reporter. He spent 15 years before that in a similar role at NBC-owned WMAQ-Ch. 5, which he joined after seven years as a network correspondent for CBS News based in Chicago, London and Bonn, Germany.
A graduate of Hales Franciscan High School and Northwestern University with a master's degree from the University of Illinois, Blakley began his TV career at WBNS-TV in Columbus, Ohio. But he got his start in daily journalism at the Chicago Tribune in the mid-1970s, alongside other fledgling reporters such as David Axelrod, now senior adviser to President Barack Obama.
His first day at the Tribune? He landed a byline on the front page of the June 11, 1974 edition with what he calls "a sob story." It told of a chronically ill son of a retired 64-year-old carpenter who never got past the second grade receiving his elementary school degree from hospital bed, where he was being treated for deblitating bone diseases.
"My best day in journalism," Blakley recalled. "I tell everybody it's been downhill ever since."
Not really.
"I'm a black kid from the South Side of Chicago," Blakley said. "My parents read the Tribune and watched CBS. I worked for the Tribune. I was a CBS News correspondent all over the world, and I've worked for Channel 2 for seven years now. My whole life has been just (a) dream come true."
He pauses briefly, as his voice catches, apologizes and continues.
"Has every turn in the career gone the way I wanted it to? No, but that's what happens in life," he said. "Still, to have had some great experiences and made a damn good living at a career you figured out you wanted to do in the eighth grade, is not something a lot of people can claim. It is a privilege you get to come to work. It's always different, always exciting, always Chicago.
"I've been hugely blessed on many many levels."