Olympic figure skating champion Scott Hamilton said he was diagnosed with a benign pituitary brain tumor for a third time.
Hamilton, who took gold in Sarajevo in 1984, underwent chemotherapy to treat testicular cancer in 1997 and was twice previously diagnosed with brain tumors and had surgery, in 2004 and 2010.
“I didn’t have any symptoms, I just went in for my normal check-up, and they found the beginnings of the brain tumor coming back,” the 58-year-old Hamilton said. “I have a unique hobby of collecting life-threatening illness. ... It’s six years later, and it decided that it wanted an encore.”
From People magazine:Hamilton learned of the tumor at a routine check-up and is currently exploring all his treatment options before symptoms begin presenting.
“I’ll tell anybody that will listen: If you’re ever facing anything, get as many diagnoses as you possibly can,” he says. “The more you truly understand what you’re up against, the better decision you’re going to make.”
Hamilton was in New York on Friday to promote U.S. Figure Skating’s “Get Up” campaign.
“It’s all about shrugging it off, whatever’s going on, whether it be bullying at school, whether it be a setback in health, you just get up,” Hamilton said. “Not only to bring the young people that love skating together, but to bring the broader population into the fold.”
Hamilton said that surviving cancer was the moment in his life that he most associated with the “Get Up” campaign.
“Chemotherapy for months was devastating, but it’s endurable,” Hamilton said. “I don’t want to scare anybody from being treated for cancer, because I’m here, 20 years later, but the surgery afterwards was 38 staples, and I’m a little person. Getting up, getting back on the ice and performing again, quickly, was kind of my ‘Get Up’ moment.”
