2 anchors on medical leave
Two longtime Chicago news anchors will be off TV screens for weeks as they battle recently diagnosed medical conditions.
Hosea Sanders of ABC7 and Rob Stafford of NBC5 announced this week they would take time off to undergo treatment.
Sanders, 59, wrote in a Facebook post Tuesday that he was diagnosed with prostate cancer a few weeks ago. He said he would undergo surgery on Wednesday.
“I’m in the care of some outstanding professionals and I’m very optimistic about the outcome,” wrote Sanders, who has been with ABC7 for 23 years.
Sanders didn’t specify how long he would undergo treatment, only saying he would be “taking some time off ” from the 7 p. m. weeknight newscast he anchors with Cheryl Burton, produced by ABC7 for WCIU- Channel 26.
Stafford, 58, informed colleagues Wednesday morning of his battle with a rare blood disorder amyloidosis, which occurs when a substance called amyloid builds up in an organ.
He wrote in an email to the newsroom that he would undergo a bone marrow transplant and chemotherapy.
Stafford said in the email that he will be off the anchor desk for several months. He is scheduled to begin treatment Friday at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota.
“The Mayo hematologists are among the best amyloid experts in the world,” Stafford wrote. “They say a bone marrow transplant using my own stem cells and chemotherapy is clearly the best option for me. Two- thirds of amyloid transplant patients go into remission and my doctors are confident I will be one of them.”
He said doctors discovered the disorder at an early stage — 2 of 4 — after his wife urged him to get an early diagnosis.
Stafford, who anchors the 5, 6 and 10 p. m. newscasts, joined NBC- 5 in 2009 after stints with NBC’s “Dateline” NBC and CBS- 2.