Fox 8's Tracy McCool's husband dies after 5-year colon cancer fight

The husband of Fox 8 evening newcast anchor Tracy McCool, John Cook, has died after a five-year fight with colon cancer, the news station said Wednesday.

The couple, who met at Copley High School in 1986, had kept the Northeast Ohio community updated on Cook's cancer battle since his 2018 diagnosis and advocated for men getting tested for colon cancer.

Fox 8 said that "John’s prognosis was never good. However, he never let it change who he was, and he never stopped smiling." He told the station that he ignored symptoms and didn’t know his full family history.

“You need to go [to the doctor.] You need to go when you’re 35 and not 50. OK? 50 is when you get it. I probably had cancer for a few years, but I waited and walked in, and I was stage four,” he told the station. “I don’t care if it costs you what you’ve got in your savings account. Take it out of your savings account. Use your insurance. Whatever. Go to the Cleveland Clinic. Get the bloodwork done. Go find out what you’ve got if anything and pray you don’t have this.”

Cook, 53, served in the military and owned a gym where he trained mixed martial arts fighters. He tried multiple treatments and applied to multiple clinical trials throughout his cancer journey in an attempt to "choke out the cancer," the station said.

Tracy McCool posted on Facebook last month that her husband had been accepted to a clinical trial at University Hospitals.

After graduating high school, Cook and McCool went their separate ways, but they later reconnected and married in 2002. They celebrated their 20th anniversary in December.

"PEACE BE STILL MY LOVE! Fly high in heaven!" Tracy McCool posted on Facebook early Wednesday morning.

Along with his wife, Cook is survived by their daughter Cassidy and son Carter.

“There has been some good that’s come from [cancer],” John said about a year after his diagnosis. “I think I’ve become a little bit more humble. I have value in other things, the important things, like the time I spend with my kids and the time I spend with my wife.”

This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: Fox 8 News Tracy McCool's husband dies after colon cancer fight