Last Saturday, we lost a friend many of us have never met. Mike Sands, the Fox 40 anchor and cancer warrior, succumbed to the disease. He had fought a brave and public battle against a monster that left his body in incredible pain.
He is free of that pain now.
He was 34.
Mike was diagnosed with cancer in 2012. That’s when he found a lump in his calf that turned out to be a rare and aggressive form of soft tissue cancer, called myxoid liposarcoma. After it briefly went into remission, it came back with a vengeance in 2016, as it began attacking various parts of his body.
That’s when Mike Sands went to battle.
He came on the show in 2017. Other than him losing his hair, you couldn’t tell he had the disease at all — Mike looked like he could crush me with his thumb. I kept thinking, “There is no way cancer will beat this man. He’s too strong mentally and physically.” His positivity and heart filled this studio. His smile was infectious. His attitude was inspiring — I was ready to take on the world after spending an hour with him. To quote his Fox co-host and close friend Melissa Faith Payne, “When you watch him in this battle, you can’t help but fall in line and figure out what you can do to help.”
That was the effect Mike had on everyone he met.
TV personalities are like family. We invite them into our homes and feel like we know them. Most of the time, that’s not necessarily true. They deliver the news while hiding their personal lives behind perfect hair, perfect teeth and perfect smiles. Mike, however was very open about his battle. He was brutally real. We all pulled for him as we heard about his treatments. We prayed for him as he flew back home for more and more surgeries. We felt his pain, his hope and his will. We knew that if anyone could beat this cancer, it would be Mike Sands.
We became members of #TeamSands and prayed for a miracle.
Mike never got that miracle.
On April 12, he got the news he didn’t want to hear. According to the doctors it was time to stop fighting and start looking at quality of life.
“No chemo is working,” he told the Clarion Ledger in an interview. Hearing six months, he said, emotionally, “I’m not ready to go in six months.” He kept fighting.
He made it seven months.
Twelve days ago, we got this message from him: This vile, menacing, plays-by-its-own-rules disease has literally taken my legs out from under me. Roughly a week after back surgery last month, I began experiencing weakness in both legs. Within days, I couldn’t even use a walker to get around. My legs are incapable now of bearing any weight. I’m largely bedridden, and I need a wheelchair to get anywhere.
We could feel our collective hearts sink.
He finished by saying, ” I should be in Jackson cutting it up with Melissa as the city’s favorite anchor tandem five nights a week. I should be showering my daughter with the love only a father can give. Instead, I lie here dealing with this harsh and cruel fate, incapable of doing either.”
Less than two weeks later, he passed away with those who loved him by his side.
Not only was Mike a friend and inspiration to many, he was also the father of his young daughter Briar. I hope someday she understands how brave and strong her father was. I hope those who love her can lift her up as she grows up without her dad.
I’m for a loss of words right now. Mike lived every cancer patient’s worst nightmare. But he lived it with strength and grace. The key word being this: Lived.
So if you want to truly honor him, live like Mike. That’s Mike Sands’ legacy. He lived every moment he was alive.
Bless him and all who loved him.
