For many Canadian sports viewers, John Lu is one of the more recognizable reporters out there. Lu has been at TSN since 2000, and has been serving as their Montreal bureau chief for much of that time, reporting for SportsCenter and providing plenty of in-game reports for CFL, NHL, and MLS games (amongst others) in Montreal. But he’s recently faced a difficult battle with the COVID-19 coronavirus, which he discussed in a Twitter thread Sunday night. Here are those tweets (click the date stamp in individual tweets to expand those images and see the full thing):
— John Lu (@JohnLuTSNWpg) September 21, 2020
— John Lu (@JohnLuTSNWpg) September 21, 2020
— John Lu (@JohnLuTSNWpg) September 21, 2020
— John Lu (@JohnLuTSNMtl) September 21, 2020
That’s certainly a harrowing ordeal for Lu, and it’s awful to hear that he’s had to go through that. It’s good to see him sharing his story, though, and adding to the ranks of sports media members who have spoken publicly about just how hard battles with COVID-19 and likely-related conditions have been for them. (And some sports media members have passed away from the disease.) This is a disease that’s harmed a ton of people, with more than 200,000 Americans and more than 9,000 Canadians dying after contracting it, and others like Lu facing long recoveries from the disease itself and from other conditions likely brought on by it. It’s also notable to see Lu using his platform here to encourage donations to True North Aid, a charity committed to supporting northern Indigenous communities in Canada. You can find their donations page here.
[John Lu on Twitter; screengrab from TSN on Facebook, from a segment of Lu reporting on the Montreal Canadiens in January 2020]