Senior Vice President and Anchor for Fox News and Fox Business Neil Cavuto has spoken openly before about his Multiple Sclerosis, telling TVNewser seven years ago living with MS was worse than his battle with cancer. Now, during Multiple Sclerosis Awareness Week, Cavuto wrote a guest blog for RealWorldHealth.org on battling through MS’s effects while on-air.
“Perhaps the most maddening thing about having MS when you’re a TV anchor is that some days it hits you when you’re on TV and you’re “trying to anchor.” You’re trying to be on top of your game, but your body is playing games with you. That’s when “anchor” takes on a whole new meaning…not what I am on television, but the dead weight I’ve become in reality.”
Cavuto continues about how his illness impacts his relationship with his viewers:
It’s at those times when I can’t move, that I often feel moved to explain to viewers, “it’s not me, it’s the MS.” It’s not me forgetting that guest’s name, it’s an exacerbation hitting my brain and causing me to forget that guest’s name. It’s at those times I lose my train of thought, that I question how thoughtless MS is. That’s when this illness hits home – when I just want to hit back, but can’t. This MS Awareness Week, it’s about reminding folks what it feels like to be…weak…to be vulnerable, to simply be unable to do the simplest things.
He’s been on-air with Fox News for 18 years, hosting two shows for the last 12 years (Monday-Friday’s “Your World” and Saturday morning’s “Cavuto on Business”). In 2007, he added a third program to his workload with the debut of Fox Business Network, where he hosts “Cavuto.”