TV news anchor fighting aggressive cancer targeted by stalker (VIDEO)

In Julie Nolin’s three-decade-long career in journalism, she’s faced challenging stories, but the Global News reporter, anchor, and producer has never wanted to be the centre of the story.

Now, that’s changed. Nolin has gone public with a very private and personal fight.

She has cancer.

“On this Terry Fox Day, it’s with a heavy heart that I’m sharing some personal news regarding my health. In early July, I found out I have an aggressive form of breast cancer: Triple positive, invasive ductal carcinoma,” Nolin’s social media post reads in part.

Nolin, who joined Global BC less than a year ago following a lengthy career with CTV News, has been off-air for the Saturday and Sunday evening news programs as she undergoes chemotherapy.

However, she tells Daily Hive she made a return to work recently with the support of her doctors but admits her energy levels are not where they were and that “chemo brain is real.”

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That, and her appearance has changed.

“I lost my hair about a week and a half ago. This is still very, very recent. And I think I did the right things along the way to prepare myself for it, but it was still just absolutely shocking,” she said. “I’m wearing a wig right now. You know, my husband says, ‘Hey, it’s fantastic that you have such a nice shaved head.’

“I guess I’m grateful for a nice-shaped head, but I do miss my hair.”

It’s been an emotional time for Nolin, who recently wed her former colleague, Pete, a CTV photographer, in a small ceremony in front of family, friends, and fellow journalists.

“He is just an absolutely amazing human being,” she said.

“We got engaged about four and a half years ago. And I had a terrible car accident that put this all on the back burner, and then the pandemic. The very first week that I was diagnosed, I sat down beside him and asked him to marry me,” she said.

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“No more waiting. We whipped together the most beautiful wedding and reception in two weeks,” Nolin said through tears.

“I got married on the 11th of August, and on the 12th of August, I got all my hair cut off,” she said, adding she started chemo two days after that in what began a series of treatments for the BC-based broadcaster.

“It’s been such highs and such lows this last few weeks.”

Adding to the lows, Nolin has joined a growing number of female journalists who are going public with horrific personal attacks against them in recent years.

“It’s terribly unfortunate that, alongside countless media colleagues in addition to the current fight for my life, I find myself in the crosshairs of online criminal harassment and stalking on social media,” Nolin said on social media.

On this Terry Fox Day, it’s with a heavy heart that I’m sharing some personal news regarding my health. In early July, I found out I have an aggressive form of breast cancer: Triple positive, invasive ductal carcinoma. On August 14th, I started six months of chemotherapy to kick…

— Julie Nolin (@JulieNolinTV) September 18, 2023

Nolin is unable to provide more details into the harassment as the case is an active police file, only saying that the actions of this person are “insidious and cruel.”

Watch: Julie Nolin speaks out on her cancer journey, marriage, and online harassment

However, she didn’t want to remain in the shadows. After sharing her struggles privately, she says she felt it was finally time to tell the viewers what was going on.

“It’s been hard to know how to bring it out to the public, and that’s why I wanted to put it out there on Terry Fox Day,” she said. “Terry Fox Day is very much in my heart and a part of my childhood, and I really want to continue to support any kind of cancer organization, research, raising awareness, and pushing for positive change around early detection.”

Nolin says she had been proactive about her health her whole life and had first flagged a concern to her doctor in January. But it wasn’t until five months later that the mother of two was able to get tested.

“I got stuck in a system that didn’t allow me to get examined. Because the system isn’t built for efficiency. It’s built for bureaucracy. And that’s what happened to me,” she said about the delays in getting a mammogram, ultrasound, and biopsy before treatment could begin.

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“The type of cancer I have, it’s called triple positive, invasive ductal carcinoma. This is not a common cancer, [as] I have the HER-2 protein feeding this cancer along with my hormones, and that’s what creates this triple positive diagnosis. It is an aggressive, aggressive form of cancer. It has spread into my lymph nodes. I haven’t been staged yet. People will keep asking, ‘Have you been staged yet?’ No.”

“This system has to change and I felt like I slipped through the cracks and had to keep demanding help along the way. And that shouldn’t be the case,” she said.

Nolin says as she advocates for change, she’s staying optimistic. She says one of the biggest blessings has been the support since joining a sisterhood of others going through a similar journey, like those who have also lost their hair.

“It’s amazing to discover all the wigs out there. I’ve been leaning into it really hard. I was a blonde yesterday,” she said, laughing.

“I think that while this is life and death stuff, and it is scary to have to go through all of this, you have to find ways to capture those positives and to embrace it and not be scared.”