When Libby Znaimer was told she had pancreatic cancer in 2008, she knew the diagnosis came with one of the lowest survival rates of all cancers. The number of Canadians who survive pancreatic cancer is tragically low, and for those diagnosed at an advanced stage three – like Libby was – the situation is much more dire. 

Still, this wasn’t her first rodeo with the disease. She had successfully fought breast cancer two years prior. And, against all odds, she ended up fighting this one, too. For the next 15 years, the Montreal-born radio and television host (and sister of Moses Znaimer, founder and CEO of ZoomerMedia) lived cancer-free, with clear scans and negative tests at every doctor’s appointment.

Then, in late 2022, a routine scan picked up an enlarged node in her stomach, and she was given news she wasn’t expecting: it was cancer … again. But not a recurrence – a new cancer. Having three primary cancers in a lifetime is super rare – it’s reported in less than one percent of cancer cases. Znaimer had already survived the nearly impossible when she beat pancreatic cancer. In Canada, the 5-year survival rate for all cancers combined is about 64 percent but for pancreatic cancer, it’s only 10 percent. And given that 95 percent of cancer fatalities occur in Canadians 50 and over, she had good reason to wonder about her latest diagnosis, “Will this be the one that kills me?”

Znaimer’s journey of recovering from stomach cancer is the focus of her emotional and raw documentary, The Sequel I Never Expected: The Ongoing Cancer Chronicles of Libby Znaimer,” premiering on VisionTV on Nov. 17 at 9 p.m. ET.

It’s not the first time she’s allowed viewers into her diagnoses. The documentary Cancer Saved My Life and her book, In Cancerland: Living Well Is the Best Revenge, explored her fight with breast and pancreatic cancers, but in retrospect. “Last time, we didn’t shoot when I was sick. But this time, the journalist, filmmaker and broadcaster in me thought we needed to show this journey in real time. That was the only way I thought to do it. I didn’t have any problem with sharing the details of what I was going through as it was happening,” she says. 

The documentary starts in the early-morning hours of Oct. 26, 2023, as Znaimer and her husband, Doug Goold, leave for a major surgery that would involve the removal of her stomach. Znaimer, who’s been a fixture in Canadian media for more than three decades – she hosts the popular call-in radio show Fight Back with Libby Znaimer at noon every day on Zoomer radio – is no stranger to being on camera, and she tells her story from the beginning in the medical imaging department at UHN’s Princess Margaret Hospital in Toronto, one of the premier cancer-treatment centres in the world. Her story continues up to and post-surgery.  

Cameras follow along as Znaimer goes for chemotherapy and immunotherapy to shrink the tumour, and to a slew of appointments with her care team, where she finds out test and scan results and learns her treatment options at the same time as viewers. “You don’t know what to expect when you’re in those situations. We would go into a treatment room, the crew would be on one side, and the doctors would come in the other side. A couple of times I was asked if I wanted to know what the news was in advance, but I always said no,” she says. “So, for example, you see me talking to the oncologist who tells me my results are amazing, then you see the surgeon telling me my results are really good, but not yet good enough for surgery. We were all finding out at the same time and we don’t know what we’ll hear.”

While medical tests, the benefits and risks of treatment options and the timeline of her five-hour surgery shine a light on what cancer patients endure every day, it’s Znaimer’s resilience and her support system that are most inspiring. A well-deserved trip to Punta Cana, Dominican Republic, with Doug halfway through her battle, a dinner dubbed the “last supper” hosted by Moses, and Znaimer’s moxie to get dressed up and attend a black-tie gala just 10 days post-op offer hope to viewers going through their own diagnoses. 

“This is my life; there has to be more than just dealing with cancer,” she says humbly. “I’ve always been quite adamant about that. I’ve always tried to keep doing as much as I can. I know a lot of people stop everything and focus solely on the cancer, but that’s really not for me. I’d seen this movie before, and I knew I wanted to live.” 

That’s a key piece of advice that comes across in the 45-minute documentary – the importance of being in the now, in which Znaimer is a big believer. “I think, in general, the way we live today makes it very difficult to live in the moment. And one of the things I see everywhere that makes me nuts is this whole thing about making memories,” she says with a laugh. “It’s important to be in the present. I go to work every day, play tennis, cook, do everything like I normally would. It doesn’t help to keep thinking about how you felt so good a month ago, or whether you’re going to die a month from now. Just live for the day.”