Photo: Nathan Congleton/NBC
Craig Melvinis thanking hisTodayshow family and viewers for their well wishes as he mourns the death of his older brother, Lawrence Meadows.
On Wednesday’sepisode of the NBC morning show, Melvin, 41, rejoined his co-hosts after his brother died at age 43 over the weekend following a years-long battle with stage 4 colon cancer.
“So good to see you all, so good to be back. I’m doing better,” the broadcaster said. “I was just telling Mr. [Tom] Mazzarelli, our co-executive producer, that our family is relieved.”
“As you guys know, you’ve been along from the beginning of the journey. He was suffering at the end, and when you have someone you love and that you cherish, you don’t want them to suffer anymore,” Melvin added. “So his suffering is over and our family, we are at a pretty good spot.”
Melvin went on to thank his co-anchors —Hoda Kotb,Savannah Guthrie, Al Roker, and Sheinelle Jones — as well as his fans and viewers for their support.
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Melvin announced his brother’s death in an emotional post on Instagram Saturday.
“We lost our older brother this week,” Melvinwrote. “Lawrence Meadows was a husband (to Angela, his childhood sweetheart), father (to Addie, 11 and Lawson, 7) Baptist minister, entrepreneur, and one of the best human beings you would’ve ever known.”
“Colon cancer robbed him and us of so much,” he continued. “He was diagnosed at 39. He died Wednesday at 43. He spent a fair amount of time over the past few years raising awareness about the disease. We’ll be keeping up that fight. We love you, bro.”
Melvinfirst shared newsof his brother’s cancer diagnosis on theTodayshow in February 2017, explaining that doctors removed a baseball-sized tumor from Meadows' abdomen in October 2016 but discovered that the cancer had already spread.
In 2018, Melvin called his brother a “fighter” whilegiving an updateon his health. He also said that Meadows had undergone 28 chemotherapy treatments in Houston at that point.
Speaking to PEOPLEin April, Melvin said it was “a punch in the gut” when they first learned about Meadow’s diagnosis.
“Here’s a guy who didn’t drink, didn’t smoke, lived a clean life, played football in college,” Melvin said about his brother. “He was 39 at the time.”
source: people.com
