DATE: Sunday, April 27, 1997                TAG: 9704250097

SECTION: DAILY BREAK             PAGE: E1   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY LARRY BONKO, TELEVISION COLUMNIST

                                            LENGTH:   95 lines

WVEC ANCHORMAN TERRY ZAHN HANGS TOUGH IN HIS BOUT WITH CANCER

TERRY ZAHN is losing weight. That is obvious to anyone who watches WVEC's local news at 6 and 11 p.m, which Zahn co-anchors with Regina Mobley.

Zahn is so thin that his shirt collars appear to be one size too large. He says he's lost 20 pounds.

Zahn looks thin and tired, even when he's trying to be cheerful and upbeat on camera.

If Zahn didn't take a nap after the 6 o'clock newscast, he wouldn't have the energy to even go on camera at 11. ``I had no idea what fatigue was until now,'' said Zahn.

``It washes over me like a giant wave.''

Zahn has cancer. He says it's a myeloma, a malignant tumor of the bone marrow. He's never tried to hide it. Two and a half weeks ago, Zahn told his co-workers in the WVEC newsroom about the cancer. Then his boss at Channel 13 called me to say it was OK if I put the story in the paper. If you knew Zahn, you wouldn't be surprised to hear that.

He has long been a friend and supporter of the American Cancer Society's Eastern area office. Zahn's mother had cancer. He wants the world to know about cancer, and how much is being done here and elsewhere to conquer the disease.

He wants you to know that you can have cancer, be treated, and go on living your life. You can be like Zahn. You can stay on the job as chemicals are pumped into your bloodstream to find and destroy the cancerous cells.

For four consecutive days every other week, Zahn undergoes chemotherapy without visiting a hospital or a doctor's office. There is a reservoir of chemicals strapped to his body.

With the drugs and steroids comes a small, lightweight device that dispatches a measured dose into his body - so many milligrams every half hour.

``Night and day,'' said Zahn.

``When I'm awake and when I'm asleep.''

He expected to be nauseated. He hasn't been. He did not expect to be tired all the time. But he is.

``If I didn't nap for an hour and half after the 6 o'clock newscast, I'd never make it for the 11,'' Zahn said. ``I don't have the energy reserves. On my first day back on camera after I was diagnosed with the myeloma, I had some doubts I would make it through the newscast. I'm doing better now. I'm getting stronger slowly but surely.''

He expected to be sick to his stomach. It hasn't happened. He expected to lose some of his hair to the chemo. It hasn't happened.

He did not anticipate hiccups.

But now they come, sometimes a few minutes before he's to sign on with the news. No matter what he does, from standing on his head to blowing into a paper bag to holding his breath, the hiccuping is relentless.

``How I made it through the 6 o'clock newscast the other day without hiccuping, I'll never know,'' said Zahn. ``There was a little hiccup as we were signing off. I wonder if anyone noticed.''

It is not the cancer alone or the side effects of the chemotherapy that make Zahn feel miserable at times. He has pain in his back caused by a compression fracture of several vertebrae.

It happened when he picked up a heavy suitcase. The pain sent him to the doctors. It was a blessing in disguise. While looking for the cause of the back pain, doctors found the cancer.

``I suspect it was an offshoot of the cancer,'' said Zahn of the back pain. ``Weakened bones.''

Today, Zahn reads his script while sitting on a pillow. He laughs about not being as tall as he used to be before the vertebrae weakened.

``I used to sit as tall as Regina,'' said Zahn. ``Now she towers over me.''

Zahn said he almost gave up the idea of continuing at the anchor desk while undergoing chemotherapy when he saw tapes of his work soon after the treatments began. ``I saw the pain and fatigue in my face. But since then, I've learned to adjust, learned to move on camera without hurting myself, and I've recovered control of my breath and delivery.''

Zahn, who is barely out of his 40s, was so healthy and energetic just a few months ago that he'd go jogging after he came home from work near midnight. ``I'd run three or four miles, and feel so refreshed and invigorated that I'd take the dog for a walk.

``Now I'd be lucky to make it around the block,'' said Zahn.

He said he is healing. He said he feels better with each passing day. His mother beat back cancer eight years ago, and he expects to do the same here and now.

Zahn says his bosses put no pressure on him to work - to keep together the team with the highest ratings at 6 o'clock, when 14 percent of Hampton Roads' 631,000 TV households are watching Channel 13.

``The doctors said I could work if I was willing,'' he said.

Zahn today wills away the back pain, the fatigue, the hiccups to keep his place at Mobley's elbow. He's gentlemanly and gracious, and very good at what he does.

Before coming to WVEC, Zahn was the rock on which WAVY rebuilt its news operation. Now he's Mr. Rock Solid at Channel 13. After he replaced popular Jim Kincaid as co-anchor at 6, the ratings not only did not wither, they got better.

It hurts to see him looking so thin and tired. I have to remind myself that Terry Zahn says he is getting better every day. ILLUSTRATION: Photo

WVEC

Zahn has continued to anchor the news at 6 and 11 p.m.

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