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Kathleen Petty returns to CBC airwaves as interim host of Ontario Today

Kathleen Petty has returned to CBC to serve as interim host of provincial radio show Ontario Today.   Kathleen Petty has returned to CBC to serve as interim host of provincial radio show Ontario Today. Petty told The Ottawa Citizen that she was looking forward to getting back on the air, saying she was “on the…

Kathleen Petty has returned to CBC to serve as interim host of provincial radio show Ontario Today.

 

Kathleen Petty has returned to CBC to serve as interim host of provincial radio show Ontario Today.

Petty told The Ottawa Citizen that she was looking forward to getting back on the air, saying she was “on the comeback trail.”

Petty was diagnosed with breast cancer in the summer of 2011, shortly before a scheduled move to Calgary to host CBC’s Eyeopener morning show. Petty, the host of CBC’s Ottawa Morning and CBC Radio’s The House, changed her plans, announcing on her last broadcast that she would be remaining in Ottawa to deal with a “significant health challenge.” Months later, she would talk about her diagnosis and the subsequent double mastectomy she underwent with The Citizen’s Shelley Page.

Now, Petty will host CBC’s weekday provincial call-in program until its regular host, Rita Celli, returns in May from her maternity leave. The veteran radio and television journalist with more than 25 years of experience spoke to The Citizen’s Tony Lafaro about her return to the airwaves.

“Cancer sort of dominates your life when you’ve got it, and I’m a little tired of having my whole world revolve around that. So, it’s going to be nice to be obsessed with something else for a change and something I like doing and I like to think I’m pretty good at.” Petty said.

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She also told Lafaro that she would not be talking about her cancer on the show. “I actually don’t mind talking about it, but I don’t want every conversation to be about the fact that I had cancer. I want it to be about other things. That’s the one thing about going back to work: it just feels a little bit more normal.”

 

Related stories:

CBC Radio's Kathleen Petty delays Calgary move due to illness

Kathleen Petty on her double mastectomy and taking time for herself