Last July, the Jimmy V Perseverance Award, given annually at the ESPYs, went to one of ESPN’s own and, in his speech, anchor Stuart Scott showed just why his perseverance, his fight, his grit was so moving.
The award is named for North Carolina State basketball coach Jimmy Valvano, who died of cancer in 1993, and so famously said: “Cancer can take away all of my physical abilities. It cannot touch my mind, it cannot touch my heart, and it cannot touch my soul. And those three things are going to carry on forever.”
The words spoken by Scott, who lost his battle with cancer at the age of 49, were just as memorable, just as moving as he spoke of his daughters.
“When you die, it does not mean that you lose to cancer,” Scott told the audience. “You beat cancer by how you live, why you live, and in the manner in which you live.”
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