Dick Vitale details his purpose in new book as legendary college basketball broadcaster continues cancer fight

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Dick Vitale’s boisterous and booming voice has served as college basketball’s soundtrack for a generation of fans since he began working at ESPN in 1979. But Vitale, 84, had his voice and livelihood taken from him in a cruel twist of fate for large swaths of the last two years as he’s fought cancer — first with melanoma in 2021 and later with vocal cord (laryngeal) cancer.

The irony is not lost on him that what made him one of the most affable and recognizable personalities within the college basketball ecosystem was stripped from him. Nor is it that cancer — which he has fought hard to raise funds for as an advocate over the years against childhood cancer through the V Foundation — has plagued him the last several years and deprived him of pursuing his passion at full throttle.

Yet in several life-changing moments the last few years in which stewing and stirring in the soup of crummy news would have been understandable, and maybe even expected, Vitale has chosen instead not just to make lemonade out of lemons but to share with everyone his recipe along the way. 

And share he does. On social media, he shares photos and updates. Over texts, he shares time (like for this interview!) with strangers and coaches alike. And in his new book, Until My Last Breath: Fighting Cancer With My Young Heroes, Vitale will tell you about his story, his struggles with cancer and what it was like when his purpose in life was put in peril. After a brief bout with melanoma in 2021, he rang the bell in 2022 only to be diagnosed months later with throat cancer which required intense treatment, vocal rest and eventually, surgery.

“I thought my life’s purpose of helping these kids was being taken from me,” Vitale writes in his book. 

“The monster that is cancer has taken away the most precious gift God gave me. I’ve made my career, my livelihood, my very name with my voice. And now, as fate would have it, my third…

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Source link : https://www.cbssports.com/college-basketball/news/dick-vitale-details-his-purpose-in-new-book-as-legendary-college-basketball-broadcaster-continues-cancer-fight/

Author : Kyle Boone

Publish date : 2024-03-29 14:37:23

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