Deion Sanders might’ve lost a bladder. But Coach Prime just gained a fan.
“I’m so sorry he had to go through this,” Anita Cunningham told me over the phone early Monday night. Then she laughed. “But, hey, welcome to the club.”
Cunningham, a bladder cancer survivor from Douglas County, volunteers in greater Denver for BCAN, the Bladder Cancer Advocacy Network. She’s been cancer-free — and bladder-free — for about half a decade now.
Anita still bikes. Still hikes. Still swims. When we spoke about Coach Prime’s cancer diagnosis on Monday, she was on her way to play pickleball.
“(I was), ‘Get out of my way, I’ve got a life to live,’” Cunningham said. “‘With or without the bladder, I’ll figure it out.’”
She thinks the 57-year-old Sanders, who announced Monday that he’d battled and beaten bladder cancer, will figure it out, too.
“I know people who are 27 years cancer-free,” Cunningham continued. “So there is life after diagnosis. It’s just different.”
Cunningham, who was initially diagnosed in 2018, went with an ileal conduit, which involves a pouch that catches and holds urine.
“It’s very frustrating,” she said. “But I’m glad he’s on the road to recovery.”
Anita was born into a family of Buffs. Full disclosure: She also wound up going to CSU. Although when it comes to the Bladder Cancer Survivors’ Club, everybody wears the same colors. And the same scars.
“I do wish him well,” Cunningham said. “And I hope, if he ever needs anything, he will reach out to BCAN. As far as resources, I know he’s got the best people possible. But sometimes, when you’re talking to somebody who’s walked the walk, it’s different.”
BCAN actually holds an annual charity walk in Denver for bladder cancer awareness, and Cunningham would like to invite Coach Prime to be a part of it. About 200 folks participated in the 2025 “Walk To End Bladder Cancer” at Great Lawn Park this past May. Ronald Douglas, who organizes the event with Anita, has another lined up for next spring.
“He’s just very open,” Douglas, who has battled non-invasive bladder cancer since 2011, said of Sanders.
“When you lose your bladder, that’s kind of a big deal. I admire him more than ever. I can’t even begin to tell you how much I admire the guy. It’s not an easy road without a bladder.”
Bladder cancer is the fourth-most common cancer in men, according to the American Cancer Society. It’s the 10th-leading cause of cancer deaths in the U.S., with one out of every 125 male cases proving fatal and one out of every 333 female cases.
And Douglas isn’t a Buff, either. He was born and raised in Berkeley, Calif., a Cal Bear to the bone.
“We should all be so forthright with issues like this,” Douglas said. “He really laid it on the line.
“… I can’t tell you how grateful I am for him speaking up and speaking out and being gutsy about it. And maybe, because of him, somebody else down the road will have heard about this.”
Bob Emmerling happened to be on the road Monday morning while Coach Prime was meeting with reporters. Emmerling had, coincidentally, just turned up for his first radiation treatment at around 11:30 when he heard Sanders’ announcement.
The 66-year-old Limon native had been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in March and started chemo in early April.
“I felt like someone was just taking a blunt poker (to my back) and just pushing and wouldn’t let up for three days in a row,” Emmerling recalled. “I said (to my wife), ‘You’ve got to take me to the ER right now.’”
Good thing. As any mother or wife will happily remind you, most dudes just aren’t programmed well for pain. Still, as Emmerling reminded me, cancer’s not the kind of thing you can just rub some dirt on and walk off.
“I’ve tried to talk to my male friends since I turned 50,” Emmerling stressed, “telling everyone that this is not something to joke around with.”
Bob said it took longer for him to get comfortable on the table to receive treatment on Monday than it did to get scanned.
“It’s in and out in 15 minutes,” Emmerling said. “It’s just something that you have to go through.”
Sanders’ frank news conference in Boulder reminded Douglas of his own diagnosis nearly 15 years earlier. Like Coach Prime, his primary care physician didn’t exactly mince words.
“‘We have a problem,’ is what he said,” Douglas recalled. “‘I’ll show it to you.’ And it was ugly.
“He was very blunt. But he saved my life.”
Cunningham feels Coach Prime will be getting on just fine with his life, starting with CU’s opener against Georgia Tech on Aug. 29. And bladder or no bladder, her pickleball game’s never been better.
“I’m sorry that he has to be that voice,” Anita said, “but I hope he can become someone who will help get money for research. Because it’s a cancer that’s being looked at as treatable, it’s not … I just don’t think you have the celebrity status like breast cancer has.”
It’s got a celebrity now. A spokesperson for BCAN told me late Monday afternoon that the organization’s Web page about bladder removal had seen more than a 25% spike compared to the previous 24 hours. Of all the bumps from The Prime Effect, that one just might be the best yet.
For more information on the Bladder Cancer Advocacy Network, visit bcan.org.
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