Jamie Campbell missed World Series broadcasts for 'pre-skin cancer' treatment. Here's how he's doing
The Sportsnet host hopes he can be a public example for living vibrantly after a cancer diagnosis
Sportsnet's Jamie Campbell has been a fixture on Toronto Blue Jays and Major League Baseball broadcasts for nearly two decades, but he was absent from World Series coverage earlier this month.
Fans found out why when Campbell posted a photo of his face on X, formerly known as Twitter, last week. Half of Campbell's face appeared red and inflamed in an image accompanying the post in which he revealed he was receiving treatment for "pre-skin cancer."
"It's been a bit of a life changing situation," Campbell told Day 6 host Brent Bambury. "I'm told [the treatment] is incredibly effective. It just leaves me looking like Freddy Krueger."
Campbell revealed in a subsequent post that he was told much of the damage to the skin on the left-side of his face came from driving.
"I know modern cars have windows that now sort of have UV protective shields, but for the longest time I was driving a 2010 model and never imagined that I'd be damaging the skin on the left side of my face."
This isn't the first public diagnosis or treatment related to cancer Campbell has shared. In 2021, he revealed he is living with chronic lymphocytic leukemia.
He spoke to Bambury about how he's handling his diagnosis and why he feels it's important to go public with his preventative skin-cancer treatment. Here's part of that conversation.
First off, how are you feeling today?
I feel great. I really do. I have a few challenges, but none of them are challenges that I can't overcome.
I'm looking at a photo of your face that you posted pretty recently, and it's looking raw and burned. Are you comfortable telling people what you're going through right now with that?
Sure. Although I was joking with a few people, somebody came up to me on the street and said, "I'm sorry about your face." And I told them, "I timed it out for Halloween."
I'm a fair skinned man and I've always been very aware of wearing sunscreen, staying out of the sun as often as possible, keeping an eye in the mirror on things that might look a little strange. And I noticed about six or seven months ago, something that appeared to be growing on the right side of my face … and [I] went and had it looked at in the middle of the summer.
And what ultimately was determined was that I had something that's known as pre-skin cancer, which is, I guess, the basis for skin cancer. And the recommendation was to get it treated as quickly as possible. So I had my first appointment in late October with a process that's called photodynamic red light therapy. And the best way I can describe it, Brent, is that it feels like someone's holding a blow torch to your cheek.
Is the pre-cancer on your face related to the form of leukemia that you were diagnosed with?
That I don't know. It's quite possible they are linked. And if that's the case, that's just something I need to learn to live with as one who is dealing with a leukemia diagnosis.
You made this decision to share the treatment for your skin cancer condition, but you also made that same decision around leukemia, and as a public figure, as somebody who's recognized, why was it important for you to share that with the people who know who you are?
For two reasons, Brent. One is because I'm in the business of baseball broadcasting. The customer is normally used to seeing me pretty well every day that the Blue Jays play, and that is, as you know, quite often … I figured it would be best to let the people who watch these games understand that I might be missing from time to time.
But also what I wanted to do, and this was probably the most important reason for publicizing it, was that I knew that the leukemia I had, which is called chronic lymphocytic leukemia, is treatable and you can live with it for many, many years. I wanted anybody else that might get diagnosed with a similar disease to know that and ... if their doctor called them and told them that they had this particular form of leukemia, they could flip on their television and see a happy, healthy, vibrant, middle-aged man who's living with it as well [as] still working, still living out his passion and still very much alive.
Television has a very, very broad reach. What is it about you personally that wants to make a connection with a stranger like that? Someone whose experience might be completely different from yours, other than the fact that they are experiencing the same thing that you're going through?
Probably due to the initial fear that I felt the moment I got that phone call on January 11, 2021. You know, cancer is not a kind word. And until you know what you're dealing with, it is frightening to hear someone tell you that you now have it. And I would like to sort of lessen the blow for anybody else that might get a similar phone call.
Do you look back on that day that you received that phone call as being the before times and after that phone call, the after times? Has your life changed a lot since you realized that you were living with cancer?
It's only changed very subtly because I can tell you with great certainty that I was a person who never missed moments. I always knew from the time I was very young that I had to pay attention to all those wonderful things that sometimes we take for granted, whether it's the smell of coffee in the morning or the changing colour of the leaves, or a really good sunset, or the smiles on my children's faces, whatever it might be. Pre-cancer I was always finely tuned into those things. And what cancer did for me is – it just shone a bright light on them.
To some people, Jamie, baseball would seem insignificant compared to the life and death questions around cancer treatment. What do you continue to get out of the game, out of covering and engaging with sports in the way that you do at this point in your life?
You know, the little boy in me has never, ever gone away. And I tell people, the little boy in me always wanted this. And because of that, the little boy in me never, ever gets tired of being at that game. So that's the gift that baseball has given me.
Radio segment produced by Laurie Allan. Q&A edited for length and clarity.