WCCO-AM Minneapolis host Eleanor Mondale, daughter of the former US Vice President, is taking disability leave to once again battle brain cancer. She says in her online blog that her doctor at the Mayo Clinic has prescribed a new treatment and she hopes “third time is a charm.”
Mondale had surgery last year and beat back cancer for the second time. She’d returned to co-hosting middays with Susie Jones.
Now, she’s off the air again and has given her fans this update:
“I think the second most horrible words to hear after ‘You have brain cancer’ are ‘The cancer is back’…. but it’s happened. Again. My fantastic Dr. at the Mayo Clinic – Dr. Joon Uhm – has prescribed a new treatment, and I am hoping, this time, that “third time is a charm”. I am tired of this! I have decided to take disability leave while I am receiving treatment so my body can be strong and fight the disease with more gusto. I just don’t have the energy to “muscle through it” this time. I miss ‘CCO and of course Susie, Dan and all of the stories we hear from our listeners every day. As I watch the beautiful April snow fall down here on the farm, I am grateful for so many things. (OK, maybe not the weather…). I am lucky enough to have a great and loving support system to help me through the uncertainty that is most distressing. I know many people have called and emailed the station, noticing that I am not there. I truly appreciate that and hope that everyone will be patient with me and understand that I am taking this attempt at recovery one day at a time. Some days I feel fine, some days my energy level is nonexistent. I will update this site when I can. Thank everyone in advance for your prayers and thoughts. I can’t do this alone. Knowing everyone out there is pulling for me helps immeasurably.
Love, Eleanor”
Mondale, who’s 49, told KARE-TV she will be taking an experimental drug as part of a clinical case study. “I’m not scared, I’m just mad,” she said in an interview.
