A leading face of news that breaks the silence on Twitter. On August 27, Louis Laforge revealed that he had been affected by kidney cancer in 2021. On the social network, the Franceinfo journalist published a photo, lying and perfused on his hospital bed, before discussing his recovery.
“It was a year ago, August 27, 2021 at the Pompidou Hospital: a kidney, a ureter canal, a piece of small intestine and colon and above all less cancer. 12 months later , still some pain, still a bit of fatigue”, he wrote with relief, “but so happy to live!”. A painful ordeal that Louis Laforge managed to overcome, in particular thanks to the nursing staff.
In a second message posted on Twitter, the former presenter of the evening newspaper on France 3 wanted to pay tribute to them. “A big thank you to all the health professionals who do a wonderful job despite very precarious conditions”, before having “a thought also to all those who are fighting against the disease”. Absent from the antenna, Louis Laforge wanted to thank his employer. “And, thank you to the whole Franceinfo team for their support and trust!”.
Despite the illness, Louis Laforge has kept his optimism like his photo that he kept in his smartphone for a while. With the Huffpost, the journalist confided in the disease. “I’m doing very well, because it’s kidney cancer that was detected very early. I felt a little discomfort at the beginning of last summer (2021, editor’s note). I was immediately went to consult before going on vacation, I’m not a hypochondriac but I didn’t want to spend my summer break with it. I was thinking of kidney stones”.
Widely supported by Internet users on social networks, Louis Laforge has chosen to speak out to raise public awareness. “I had never spoken about my cancer publicly because I was in the hard, it was complicated and long, I did not have the head or the desire to talk about it. But a year later, I feel cured, even if the doctors never say that you are cured. Everything is not perfect but everything is fine”, he assures our colleagues, emphasizing further. “I went through phases of real pain, crying when I had never cried in pain in my life… Today, things are much better”, assures the presenter returned to the antenna to cover the presidential election of 2022.
Long discreet about his illness, Louis Laforge is also not very talkative about his personal life. He is from Saint-Galmier, a medieval village near Saint-Etienne, famous for the water of Badoit. “After college, I continued my studies in Saint-Etienne until I was 21. Then I joined the school of journalism in Bordeaux,” said the journalist in Version Femina in 2007.
A “country life” of which he keeps an excellent memory. “I played Indians in the woods with my classmates. All my weekends were occupied by football. Today, I still often play ball with my sons”, he assures us in front of our colleagues. A passion for football that has never left Louis Laforge after so many years: from his studies to his debut in the regional press, without forgetting his time at TF1 in the 1990s, before making his career on France 3 where he notably presented Roots and Wings.
Journalist Louis Laforge is proud of his origins, and he does not hide it. Stéphanois in the blood, he is a fervent supporter of the Saint-Etienne football club. “I also attend matches at the Geoffroy Guichard stadium, in the “cauldron”. I don’t have the green wig but I am a fervent supporter of ASSE. I am proud of my roots!”, exclaimed it with Version Femina.
A sportsman at heart, the 50-year-old does a lot of things when he’s on vacation in the region. “I have my little rituals: jogging in the countryside and the woods or a bike ride”, confided this epicurean who likes to relax “with an aperitif with some friends, in a bar in Saint-Galmier”. “And I go three or four times a year to the restaurant Les Terres Rouges, an establishment run by a friend”.
