NBC’s Anne Thompson Describes A Year-Long Battle With Breast Cancer

Last month, an e-mailer asked: “Where has correspondent Anne Thompson gone on NBC News?” Her title is “chief financial correspondent,” but it seemed like CNBC correspondents were handling all the business news.

Now we know the apparent reason for the reduced workload. “I’ve been living with cancer for the past year, and you’ve been watching me,” she wrote on MSNBC.com yesterday. “A year ago, this month, March 31 to be exact, I was diagnosed with breast cancer.”

She says her work at NBC was “part of the cure:” “It gave me purpose. It made me feel normal. 30 Rock became my cancer-free zone.” More:

Chemo took my long blonde hair. I replaced it with two wigs, nicknamed “mata hari” after the glamorous World War I spy. Chemo took my eyebrows. I replaced them with wax and powder. Then it took my eyelashes, so I wore false ones. But what it couldn’t take — what cancer couldn’t take — was my desire to report. Or my desire to live. Chemo also took all the cancer. My hair, as you can see has come back, and my desire to report is as strong as ever.

Read her entire note. Last night, Thompson reported from the Everglades (see photo, above right)…

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