Steve Cannon reveals why he disappeared for 3 weeks during the summer

Eyewitness News anchor Todd Kunz has known him as a friend for years. You know him as Eastern Idaho’s weatherman. What you don’t know is where was Steve Cannon was for three weeks this past summer. He revealed that in our Person of Interest segment.

“You probably didn’t think this day would ever come, but you are now a part of a very elite group,” said Kunz.

“I never thought this day would come, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever. It has been in my family for a long time. My mother had it. My mother-in-law had it. My brother-in-law has it, but I never thought it would ever come to me ever in a thousand, thousand years, but guess what? It did,” said Cannon.

“And tell us what it is,” said Kunz.

“I have survived cancer. I’ve been down the road and been declared cancer-free, and I’m a cancer survivor,” said Cannon.

“So the three weeks over the summer you were gone, everyone’s wondering where you were?” asked Kunz.

“I’d like to say I was out fishing, but I wasn’t. To start at the beginning, I guess, our company has a health screening program and it happens every year, and mostly it’s routine. For the men, they do a screening for PSA, which is Prostate Specific Antigen, and anything above four is considered elevated. Well, mine was 31, and so, that’s a big red flag. The family physician referred me to a specialist in town. They did a biopsy. They did another PSA test and confirmed prostate cancer,” said Cannon.

“First thought through your mind?” asked Kunz.

“I was stunned, but not shocked. I don’t know if that makes sense or not. I had mentally prepared myself for that possibility, given the high PSA score and this sort of thing, but when you actually have it confirmed, you know, it’s like the elephant sitting on your chest. After a couple of minutes I asked him, I said, ‘Gee, Dr. Cannon, does this mean I should update my will and start giving away possessions?’ And bless his heart, he looked at me and smiled and said, ‘Well, when we get this taken care of, you’ll probably only have another 25 or 35 more years to live.’ And I thought well, that’s 96, I guess I can live with that,” said Cannon.

“I’ve seen you at times when we’ve done stories about cancer, and you sit up a little straighter, and I’ve noticed that,” said Kunz.

“This will comes as a shock to a lot of people. I didn’t know. I talked to a lady yesterday and she said, ‘I had no idea.’ And I said, I did that on purpose. It was a very well-kept secret by design, but talking to the doctors and talking to the medical professionals, I thought part of me says to remain in the closet. Part of me says to be very self-contained with this thing. Only those who need to know, have to know. And then I thought a little bit more about it and doing what we do for a living, people recognize us, people see us and I thought, you know, if I tell people my experience, maybe, just maybe, I can get somebody out of the easy chair and into the doctor’s office and get them, literally, the life-saving treatment that I had,” said Cannon.

“As you look into that camera, what is your message to men, or spouses to get their husbands in there. What is that message?” asked Kunz.

“If you are 40 years or older, you need to go see your health care professional and get a PSA test. If it is four or above, you need to get to the doctor, your family doctor, a specialist, and make sure you get whatever treatment they prescribe. Because it will kill you if you don’t. It will kill you. And we don’t want that. We don’t want that,” Cannon said, and smiled.