Jamie Campbell sees ‘life differently’ after diagnosis of CLL

Sports reporter Jamie Campbell has always been active. But he says he lives with more joy in life since he was diagnosed with a common blood cancer in January 2021.

“It was a random blood test,” says the Toronto Blue Jays broadcast host. “So honestly, after taking the blood test, I wasn’t expecting a call. And when that call came in, it revealed this diagnosis of CLL.

Campbell said he knew about leukemia but had never heard of CLL, also known as chronic lymphocytic leukemia.

“It is one of the most common blood cancers affecting approximately 2,000 patients each year, who are re-diagnosed each year in Canada,” Dr. Christine Chen, a hematologist at the Princess Margaret Cancer Center in Toronto, told CTV News Toronto.

While the majority of patients are diagnosed in their 60s and 70s, Chen notes that she also has patients in their 20s.

CLL is treatable and patients without symptoms do not require treatment.

That’s how it was for Campbell in the first 14 months after diagnosis, until recently.

“My white blood cell count got shockingly high and I had lymph nodes exploding out of my armpits and neck, and my spleen had grown. And that was the indication that it was time to get treated,” he said.

Campbell was medicated and six weeks ago started Brukinsa, a new drug recently approved by Health Canada.

While not a cure, the hope is that patients like Campbell can live full lives while on this drug. By the time it is no longer effective for them, a new drug will be available.

Campbell, now 56, says his exercise regimen has at least intensified since his diagnosis. His doctors have said it’s important to keep in shape and he’d like to stay active as long as he can.

For Campbell, he says he sees his diagnosis as a blessing in disguise.

“As strange as that may sound, in my case it is, because I see life differently. I spend time with the people I love in a different way,” he said. “It’s almost like there’s a light shining on them that I never got to enjoy before this diagnosis.”