Sports presenter Mel McLaughlin reveals cancer diagnosis
Sports presenter Mel McLaughlin has revealed she's been diagnosed with cancer.
The Australian journalist, 46, shared the news on Wednesday evening, saying she'd been quietly undergoing treatment for months.
"I was diagnosed with lung cancer in December," she said during a special segment on Seven News.
Sports presenter Mel McLaughlin has been diagnosed with lung cancer. Steven Siewert/Fairfax Photographic
"That led to surgery, I had half my lung cut out."
The diagnosis despite being fit, healthy and a lifelong non-smoker brought up a lot of emotions for McLaughlin.
The presenter lost her older sister, Tara, to lung cancer in 2015 at just 39, and around Christmas she had to share her own devastating diagnosis with her family.
Tara, a senior constable in the NSW Police Force and a mum of two boys, was diagnosed with the rare and aggressive ALK lung cancer two-and-a-half years before she died.
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McLaughlin shared the news on Instagram, revealing she's been undergoing treatment for months. Getty
In an Instagram post marking the birthday of her "beautiful big sister" in 2018, the presenter opened up on her loss.
"You should have been woken up on your 43rd birthday by your little boys who would have made you breakfast in bed," she wrote.
"Instead you're not here, because cancer took you at 39. You never smoked a cigarette in your life, yet was diagnosed with lung cancer."
"I don't want anyone to think that in our family, lung cancer meant death," McLaughlin explained in Wednesday's interview.
But heading to hospital for treatment bought up a lot of feelings, with the sports journalist in the same ward at the same hospital where her sister was.
McLaughlin revealed she underwent surgery to remove the tumour and much of her left lung.
"You cut out half of my lung," she recalled to the surgical team.
She put her health on the backburner over the summer break to host the Boxing Day Test and the Pink Test in honour of Jane McGrath in January.
The presenter, pictured with Glenn McGrath on Jane McGrath Day, has been off-air since January. Instagram/@mel_mclaughlin
The day of the Pink Test she admitted she didn't watch much cricket and was instead shuffling back and forth for blood tests before undergoing surgery the next day.
She now has three simple goals, to get better, to get the word out and get back to work.
The news of her diagnosis comes as McLaughlin has been on extended leave from her presenting role at Channel Seven.
She has been off-air since mid-January, following the network's summer cricket coverage, with Matt White filling in for her.
McLaughlin previously worked at Network 10, Fox Sports and Sky News, though she began her career in radio.
The presenter spent the Pink Test raising money, with her own cancer surgery happening the next day. Instagram/@mel_mclaughlin
McLaughlin previously spoke about Tara's efforts in raising lung cancer awareness before her death, and how she wanted her to "get the message out".
"I’ve been slow because I don’t often really talk about personal stuff. Especially not the biggest and most difficult, which is you," she wrote in her 2018 Instagram post.
"The point is that NOBODY deserves lung cancer and it is an absolute giant killer with an impossibly unfair stigma. Work to be done.
"If someone is diagnosed with lung cancer, the first question shouldn't be 'Oh, so they smoke?'… it doesn't matter. And as we always say … F$@k Cancer."
McLaughlin became an ambassador for Lung Foundation Australia.
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