‘I do know the deal, I’ve carried out it earlier than, and I plan to do it as soon as once more,’ Jimmy instructed viewers throughout Wednesday’s announcement on Entrance Row.
CLEVELAND — Jim Donovan, our longtime sports activities anchor right here at WKYC Studios and the play-by-play voice of the Cleveland Browns, has introduced that he’s as soon as once more battling leukemia.
Throughout his announcement on Wednesday’s Entrance Row, Jimmy mentioned that the difficulty began a few 12 months and a half in the past. “I observed one thing was amiss with my well being,” he defined. “My considerations had been confirmed to me and it was instructed to me that I had a relapse of leukemia.”
Jimmy mentioned that over the past 12 months and a half, he has been receiving therapy utilizing varied types of chemotherapy, each intravenous and oral. “For essentially the most half, they labored fairly effectively, however issues change, and so we’ll must go together with a special therapy plan — a extra aggressive therapy plan, which has already began,” he added.
“That is going to be type of an extended and winding street by means of this therapy plan, as a result of it will be aggressive. The aim is: gotta get higher, gotta get wholesome, gotta transfer on. I do know the deal, I’ve carried out it earlier than, and I plan to do it as soon as once more,” Jimmy defined. “By way of all of this, I can be right here at Channel 3 and on the radio as a lot as I might be, however there can be durations of time that I won’t be with you, perhaps for a day, perhaps for longer.”
WKYC President and Common Supervisor Micki Byrnes launched the next assertion:
“Jim Donovan is a Cleveland broadcasting legend, whose title has turn into synonymous with the Northeast Ohio sports activities scene. Simply as Jim handles his every day reporting and evaluation with smarts, grit and power — we all know that Jim will carry that very same tenacity and spirit to this well being battle. We admire that the viewers and group stand in solidarity with our WKYC staff in supporting Jim and his household, simply as they at all times have for the previous 38+ years.”
After being identified with persistent lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) in 2000, Jimmy started a decade-long battle with the illness that finally resulted in a bone-marrow transplant in the summertime of 2011. His donor was a Virginia corrections officer named Dallas Gentry, who was an ideal 10-point match to Jimmy.
Simply three months after his transplant, Jimmy returned to the Browns broadcast sales space. It wasn’t a simple street again. Along with battling fevers, there was a prognosis of melanoma, essentially the most critical type of pores and skin most cancers, on Jimmy’s earlobe. Docs carried out surgical procedure to take away the mole.
Since then, he has been carefully monitoring his situation.
And he isn’t alone. Jimmy took just a few moments throughout his announcement to say his household, in addition to his caregivers at College Hospitals.
“I’ve an unimaginable household. My spouse Cheryl is my No. 1 go-to individual, my advocate. And my daughter Meghan is superb,” he mentioned. “We had been knocked for a bit little bit of a loop once we bought the information about this, however we have steadied ourselves and we’re able to go as soon as once more.”
Jimmy says he has “complete confidence” within the medical professionals who’re dealing with his case at UH Seidman Most cancers Middle. “They’ve carried out a tremendous job for a lot of, a few years treating me and I’m able to put my case of their fingers once more.”
A graduate of Boston College, Jimmy first arrived at WKYC in 1985. Along with his work right here in Cleveland, Jimmy known as NFL video games on NBC for 11 seasons and likewise dealt with play-by-play for a number of occasions in the course of the community’s protection of the 1992 and 1996 Summer time Olympics.
In 1999, Jimmy was named because the radio “Voice of the Cleveland Browns.” As he begins his twenty fifth season behind the microphone this fall, think about this: Since 1999, the Browns have had 10 full-time head coaches, dozens and dozens of beginning quarterbacks, however just one voice.
Jimmy closed his announcement with a message for the followers of Cleveland.
“Know this: I’ve at all times had you in my ideas. And I am keen on being with you as we undergo the ups and typically the downs of Cleveland sports activities. So you might be in my ideas and you’re a aim for me to be again with you, right here at Channel 3 and down on the stadium calling the Browns up in that radio sales space. And I will be there once I can or as a lot as I can. Proper now, responsibility calls. And the responsibility is I’ve to get higher. I believe all the pieces proper now could be pointing in a constructive means.”
And we won’t wait to look at and take heed to you, Jimmy!
If you want to ship Jimmy a message of help, e-mail us at [email protected]
