Stuart Scott, the ESPN anchor, whose humour, wit and natural ease made him a household name and a network favourite, died today (Sunday, January 4) after losing his seven-year-long battle with cancer.

Scott was diagnosed with the disease after feeling sick while covering a Dolphins-Steelers “Monday Night Football” game in November, 2007. Scott entered a Pittsburgh hospital for an emergency appendectomy. During the surgery a malignancy was found. Scott was diagnosed with cancer of the abdomen.

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After a round of chemotherapy and radiation treatments, Scott’s cancer went into remission until 2011, when he was forced to announce that the disease had returned. Throughout the following years, he continued to be a role model – working, whenever his physical condition allowed it and fighting the cancer through a regular training regimen, which included mixed martial arts and cross training.

Scott kept his spirits up and his sight on the end goal – recovery. “I never ask what stage (cancer) I’m in,” Scott told the New York Times. “I haven’t wanted to know. It won’t change anything to me. All I know is that it would cause more worry and a higher degree of freakout. Stage 1, 2 or 8, it doesn’t matter. I’m trying to fight it the best I can.”

In the end, Scott fought just for the sake of it. He revealed his admirable philosophy at last year’s ESPYs, while accepting the Jimmy V Perseverance award, in what was, in hindsight, a rather ominous speech.

“When you die, that doesn’t mean you lose to cancer,” he said. “You beat cancer by how you lived and in the manner in which you lived. So live. Live. Fight like hell.”