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Neena Pacholke ‘Endured Tragedy’ Before Her Sudden Death, Aged 27

Neena Pacholke
Credit: neenapacholketv via Facebook

American news anchor Neena Pacholke previously experienced a tragic heartbreak before her shock death, aged 27.

The newsreader, who was set to be married in less than two months, lost her first love, Jordan Harris, to a rare brain cancer when he was 18 in 2016.

He was diagnosed with primitive neuroectodermal tumours in 2011 and after two separate battles with the disease, he sadly passed before he and Pacholke began their freshman year at university.

Watch journalists discuss mental health after Neena Pacholke’s passing…

She spoke about losing her first love in an interview shared by Moffitt Cancer Center: “I just remember sitting there, all of us around him. I remember holding his hand as he passed away.

“I knew it was going to be hard but I always told him I’d be there through it all.”

The New York Post reports that Pacholke and Harris met in their first year of high school in a biology class and had been friends before dating.

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She also wrote about her boyfriend and her hopes for more significant funding for childhood cancer treatments in a blog post titled: ‘Kids Get Cancer Too.”

She wrote: “It has been thirteen months and eighteen days since the love of my life gained his angel wings from a rare form of brain cancer.  He is the main reason behind my blog topic and will continue to be the driving force behind everything that I do in life.”

According to The Oracle, Pacholke fundraised and volunteered to aid cancer research.

In an interview with the student paper, she said: “You still have your bad days, but in the end, they say everything happens for a reason.

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“Part of me questions that, but it will still make you a stronger person. It sucks you don’t have that person to text all day, but I still have his morals to carry with me.”

According to the New York Post, the WAOW anchor died on Saturday in an apparent suicide and was remembered by family and colleagues for her ‘infectious smile and positive spirit’.

A statement from the Wisconsin channel she presented on, 9 WAOW, said in a statement: “Neena Pacholke, our beloved morning anchor passed away suddenly Saturday.
“The entire team here at News 9 are absolutely devastated by the loss as we know so many others are as well.

“She was a kind person with a big heart and a contagious smile and we will miss her greatly.”

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Written by Cal Gaunt

Cal is a former content editor at IGV who specialised in writing trending and entertainment news. He previously worked as a news reporter at the Lancashire Telegraph and earned an NCTJ in Sports Journalism.