MEMPHIS, Tenn. (WMC) - If you’re keeping score, it’s Jarvis Greer two and prostate cancer: zero. Zilch. Nil. Nothing! But this latest battle has taken a toll on the retired Action News 5 sports director.
“The fatigue is what’s really debilitating,” Jarvis remembered after 34 rounds of radiation that he underwent in his second season of cancer recovery. “I was going every day, five days a week, 7 a.m.,” Jarvis said of his trips to West Cancer Center in Germantown.
“You’ve got to drink a gallon of water before you go out there because your bladder has to be full, so they make sure they see everything,” the sportsman said.
He remains active online covering the Memphis Grizzlies and on radio coverage of University of Memphis Tigers football, where he walked on as a defensive back in the mid-1970s and earned a scholarship and the No. 34 jersey.
“I’m very blessed and very lucky to, you know, still be here; that’s what my wife tells me all the time,” Jarvis said with a smile. PSA tests alerted Jarvis’s doctors to the presence of prostate cancer in both his cancer fights, and the two-time survivor urges men to go to their doctor and get the PSA test.
Jarvis’s wife, Emily, is a key player in her husband’s latest comeback story. After 29 years helping lead ALSAC, the fundraising and awareness organization at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, Emily now has her own executive coaching business. She helps leaders find pathways to excellence and greater effectiveness.
Emily Greer
Emily Greer(Action News 5)
Emily unexpectedly found herself helping coach her husband in a second cancer fight.
“I was stunned; I was not anticipating that,” Emily said of the surprise diagnosis Jarvis got after a regular checkup at his general practitioner’s office last summer.
Jarvis had taken a simple PSA (prostate-specific antigen) test that had numbers way above normal. See, the Greers had already “been there, done that” with prostate cancer after Jarvis underwent the removal of his prostate in a six-and-a-half-hour prostatectomy surgery at Vanderbilt University Medical Center in 2021.
After eight weeks of convalescence, Jarvis returned to Action News 5 jubilant and grateful.
“After recovering from the prostate surgery and the surgery to remove the stents from my kidneys, they have declared me cancer free, no radiation, no chemo, I’m good to go for now,” Jarvis told the Action News 5 audience upon his joyous return to the airwaves in March 2021.
Jarvis on Action News 5 in 2021.
Jarvis on Action News 5 in 2021.(Action News 5)
“When Jarvis went public for the first time,” Emily said of Jarvis’ first public revelation of a cancer diagnosis and successful surgery, “I was stunned by how open he was; I was stunned by the openness around which he shared his experience.”
Emily says Jarvis’s transparency about the first cancer fight helped many people.
“The comments I got, both at work and just people I know in the community, was that it helped them so much to understand and that women were having conversations with the men in their lives,” Emily said.
So, the Greers thought the whole cancer experience was in the past until the summer 2025 PSA test Jarvis got at his regular physician’s office.
The results sent him back to The Urology Group, led by a father-son team of urologists, Dr. Vance Shappley Jr. and his son, urologic oncologist Dr. Rusty Shappley, who both treated Jarvis in his first cancer battle.
“He would have had a shortened life if he hadn’t been aggressive about managing that,” Dr. Rusty Shappley said about the case of a patient he had watched cover sports on Action News 5 as a child. “So now he’s in my office, which is similar I guess, to how I feel about some of my former teachers and their husbands and wives that I take care of now,” the younger Dr. Shappley said.
“Jarvis has done everything right; he has absolutely benefitted from the therapy he’s had this far,” Shappley said. But the therapy has been anything but easy.
Jarvis and Dr. Vance Shappley Jr.
Jarvis and Dr. Vance Shappley Jr.(Action News 5)
A PET scan revealed a small, five-millimeter enlarged lymph node in his pelvis, indicating recurrent prostate cancer.
Dr. Vance Shappley Jr. explained that Jarvis’s initial pathology report showed a “questionable margin,” meaning “the disease had probably spread through the capsule of his prostate gland at the time of his surgery.”
Jarvis noted the small size of the recurrence, saying, “they said it was very, it was almost like a shadow. It was very small, like five millimeters or something like that. They said it was lucky that they saw it.” Emily added, “I consider us blessed that it even showed up when it did, because it didn’t have to.”
Jarvis acknowledged the seriousness of the lymph node involvement, stating, “your lymph nodes, that’s kind of scary... because if it hits your lymph nodes, your lymph nodes, that travels all over your body.”
Emily recalled the doctors’ approach: “they said, we’re going to hit it with a bazooka.” Jarvis described the radiation machine at West Cancer Clinic, saying, “that thing looks like a jet engine if you look at it... 5 minutes on the table. It’s good.”
Despite the challenges, Jarvis acknowledged, “about the middle of it, was tough. I’m not going to lie.” But before radiation, the treatment involved hormone ablation therapy, which Nurse Navigator Ginger Coleman, RN, explained is also called “androgen therapy.”
Jarvis was “taking seven pills” to “cut out testosterone because testosterone is a pathway for prostate cancer.” This “testosterone blocker” came with significant side effects. Jarvis described the experience: “the hormone treatment is like, it’s a testosterone blocker... it’s like fatigue and hot flashes. Wow, God bless women. I know they’ve been going through that kind of stuff with forever, but it’s like, and it’s a real deal.”
He also experienced “diarrhea and constipation at the same time. And then I had acid reflux,” Jarvis said.
The sports broadcaster was able to call “Nurse Ginger” as she made herself available 24/7 to provide medication that helped Jarvis overcome the unwelcome side effects, which were debilitating.
“I envy any pregnant woman or any female that’s going through menopause. They say that’s what it’s like. My goodness, these things hit, they hit hard. And it’s like your inside is on fire and it wants to get out, and you just start sweating. And it’s really kind of debilitating,” Jarvis said of the frequent hot flashes.
The fatigue was particularly difficult: “Once I sit down, I’m done. That’s it. I’m not getting up. I’m taking a two, three-hour nap.” The acid reflux was also severe: “I couldn’t sleep laying down. I had to sleep sitting up. because everything felt like it was coming up.”
Throughout this difficult period, Nurse Ginger provided essential support. Jarvis praised her dedication, stating, “I’m telling you, there were sometimes I needed to talk... I’m feeling a certain kind of way here.”
He added, “She is the sweetest person because she has to deal with cats. She’s the boots on the ground with cats. Call me anytime you need me. If you need some, I don’t care if it’s day or night... Because she was the first one I called when I got that acid reflux.”
Jarvis and Nurse Ginger
Jarvis and Nurse Ginger(Action News 5)
Emily also played a crucial role, especially when Jarvis felt “a little depressed or maybe a little bit despondent” due to side effects featured on cancer medication TV commercials.
She explained, “sometimes all you can do is listen, and affirm and love that person...sometimes you just need to hear, ‘but look at you, look at you today. Here, still. The prognosis is good. We’re here with you.’ And you have to be reminded how blessed you are.”
Dr. Rusty Shappley emphasized their patient-centered approach: “Our goal is not just to take care of somebody’s prostate. We’re taking care of the person who has a prostate. We’re not just taking care of their cancer. We’re taking care of the person who has cancer.”
Jarvis appreciated the direct communication from his doctors, saying, “he was very frank, right up front, saying, well, this is possible. These things are probably what you’re going to feel.”
Emily noted Jarvis’s inherent positivity: “He doesn’t spend any time being sorry for himself, going, woe is me on anything.” She attributes his “grit and the tenacity” to his athletic background, which helps him keep “moving forward.”
Jarvis himself stated, “I don’t know how people that haven’t played sports do it because in sports, you get knocked down, you get back up. It’s hard, it’s going to be difficult.”
Both doctors and Jarvis stress the critical importance of early detection and proactive health care.
Dr. Shappley Jr. commended Jarvis for his diligence: “My thoughts are that he was very smart in having his PSA determined, and he was also... that he followed up and let us work through all of this with him.” He added, “It’s very important when we reach, you know, our 50s, We have to do this. If we’re African American, we certainly have to do this because prostate cancer is more prevalent in African Americans.”
Jarvis echoed this sentiment, highlighting a common reluctance among men to seek medical attention.
“And most Black men don’t want to go to the doctor at all. I mean, most men don’t, but really Black men do not want to go, you know, I’ll tough it out. It’s okay. You know, I’ll be all right.” He passionately urged, “You can’t tough your way through it. This is a silent killer. It is. It can take you out if you don’t know that it’s there.” He added, “I want everybody out there to know that there is help when you need it. You can’t be afraid to go get it. It’s better to know than not know.”
Dr. Rusty Shappley reinforced this warning: “If you’re waiting for prostate cancer to give you a sign that it’s there, it’s likely getting to be too late for good therapy.”
He noted that “Jarvis is an example of somebody who we don’t see all the time, someone who has done everything right along the way.” He lamented that “many men that I see don’t see the physician initially to even get checked with blood work... So, by the time we’re seeing them, it may be too late.”
Nurse Ginger addressed a significant barrier: “My concerns are the fear that they have of going to the doctor, they don’t want to have the rectal exam. I think that’s their biggest fear.”
Jarvis humorously agreed, “It’s like, no, man, don’t be messing back there. What’s wrong? It’s right now. I’m okay. I’m all right. No, you don’t need to do that.”
Ginger concluded, “Men just don’t like it. It’s the unknown. And I’m here to say that people, men, need to be proactive about getting these exams. It’s so important and not waiting till you get a bad prognosis.”
Jarvis, who serves on boards for the West Cancer Foundation and Courage Through Cancer, is a testament to the power of proactive health care and advocacy.
“So that’s why we’re doing this now is to make sure that just get tested because you find out, you get it done. And my wife always tells me, ‘well, at least you’re here. You know, you could not be.’”
Emily is “very proud that he is taking this and using it for the benefit of others.” She recalled the impact of Jarvis first going public: “Jarvis got many calls from men who had questions about it and could ask him that question that they didn’t want to necessarily talk to anyone else about.”
Jarvis’s eyes were opened to the realities many cancer patients face; many don’t have a way to get to appointments.
“Now that I’m retired,” Jarvis said, “I go to West Cancer and see the bus bringing in people who are coming from Boxtown, Whitehaven, other places around town, they don’t have anything, but they do have cancer and they need help.” Jarvis said his service on the nonprofit boards is his way of helping others lacking resources.
Both Jarvis and Emily emphasize the role of faith. Emily stated, “I don’t know how you do it without it... we have to tap into our own faith to figure out how to get through this and to share that faith with one another.”
Jarvis added, “People are praying for you. I appreciate all the people that have prayed for me. And because it works, man. It works.”
Jarvis continues to stay active, working on Grizzbeat, an online sports talk show covering the Memphis Grizzlies, which you can watch on YouTube via GrindCityMedia.com.
Jarvis somehow summoned the energy to go to Europe with Emily in January to cover the Grizzlies contests in Berlin and London against the Orlando Magic. It was a Herculean effort!
Radio sports talk anchor Jason Smith marvels at Jarvis’s perseverance through his second fight with cancer. “I’ve never seen the man down,” Smith said, who watched Greer and his late father, broadcaster Les Smith, on the air all his life.
“And that’s something we feed off. He has inspired us for years, us Memphians; Jarvis Greer is doing that for us,” Smith said.
Joe Birch and Jarvis Greer
Joe Birch and Jarvis Greer(Action News 5)
That’s something all of us blessed to work alongside Jarvis have noted for decades. In our 43 years of service together at WMC, this reporter can attest that the Tigers’ No. 34 Jarvis Greer was the greatest athlete on the TV station campus in all our time here.
Whether it was playing soccer, softball, basketball or tiddlywinks, Jarvis’s energy and desire to win permeated the playing field. The man possesses the heart of a champion and like a true champion.
Jarvis is taking his experience and winning ways and putting them at the service of those who need help in their cancer journey.
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