[alisasny]

Cavuto returns the compliment, praising Ailes for his matter-of-fact acceptance of his MS diagnosis.

After breaking the news to Ailes, Cavuto, who manages a staff of about 30, told his own troops.

"I told my staff, 'Look, you may notice some things. There might be some days when I'm walking with a cane or in the hospital, sporadically. I don't know where it will go ... so I just take it one day at a time.'-"

Cavuto, who has lived for nearly a decade in Chester with his wife, Mary, and 17-year-old daughter, Tara, takes a weekly dose of the drug Avonex to slow the progression of the disease and uses a treadmill to "keep those legs going." He says he has good days, bad days, and very, very bad ones.

"It's a weird type of illness," he says. "When it's very, very bad, you can't walk or, at best, you really need a cane, but when it's OK, it's OK. You live with a degree of pain and discomfort."

Cavuto neither hides nor draws attention to his illness.

"I don't think I should be a platform or a cause," Cavuto says. "The way I can help people, hopefully, is to illustrate me trying to do my job and doing it the best way I know how, with a smile and a joke."


© Copyright 2002 Bergen Record Corporation

[Republican Red]

I remember Neil getting alot of heat when Teri Garr came out announcing her MS and people pointed fingers saying he should do the same.

Dammed if you do, damned if you don't.

I LOVE Neil Cavuto. I was hoping he'd fill in for Rush this month.