ESPN Reporter Holly Rowe’s Cancer Journey
Holly Rowe. Source: Wikimedia Commons
ESPN reporter Holly Rowe has been living with and battling skin cancer (also known as melanoma) since her diagnosis in 2015. Rowe has been in sports journalism for over 30 years, covering a variety of sports and high-profile events.
Despite facing stage 4 metastatic skin cancer, Rowe remained dedicated to her work, and continued covering events throughout her cancer journey.
Holly Rowe’s cancer diagnosis
Before Rowe’s diagnosis, she had already undergone a biopsy for a mole on her chest, which turned out to be benign. Unfortunately, she noticed later on that the biopsy scar on the mole had continued to grow. Eventually, she was diagnosed in May 2015, with desmoplastic melanoma, a rare, fast-spreading form of skin cancer.
According to the Melanoma Research Alliance, overall 5-year survival rates for stage 4 melanoma range between 34 to 52%, depending on treatment type.
Holly Rowe’s cancer treatment
At the start of Rowe’s cancer journey, she only told her close friends, family members and boss about her first tumor removal surgery.
However, before her second surgery in February 2016, a statement was released by ESPN, announcing her diagnosis. According to Rowe, “while I was waiting to go into the OR, I thought maybe I should let the PR person at ESPN know”.
Right after the surgery, Rowe saw her name scroll past on a news headline on the TV in her hospital room. She shared: “It all seemed so strange. I was used to reporting the news, not being the news.”
Afterwards, Rowe returned to work in just a few weeks. The following month, she covered the National Collegiate Athletic Association basketball championships while still having a post-surgery drain tube and bag attached.
She also continued to work while undergoing a specialized immunotherapy treatment, known as high-dose alpha interferon therapy. In an interview with Cancer Today in 2019, Rowe shared how her treatment felt like: “I was deathly ill. I couldn’t eat. I could barely walk. I would lie in bed all day and then get up and go to work.”
Finally, Rowe shared in 2024 that she was cancer-free, although she continues to go back to her doctor every six months, to monitor for any signs of the cancer returning.
Moving forward
During her cancer journey, Rowe relied on a daily ‘joy journal’ to record the little things in life that made her happy. Rowe took what she had learnt, and turned it around – founding the Joy+US Foundation, a non-profit organization with a mission to ‘spark joy in the lives of those who need it’.
Their first project was the Alex Wilcox Memorial Scholarship Fund, created in honor of Alex Wilcox, a Mississippi State softball player who passed away from ovarian cancer at age 18.