Former Outdoor Channel Host Jim Shockey’s Son Reveals Cancer Diagnosis

Branlin Shockey is sharing the latest on his health after being diagnosed with advanced Stage 2 colorectal cancer.

The producer son of Outdoor Channel legend Jim Shockey took to Instagram on Tuesday to announce the shocking results of his recent colonoscopy as he prepares for “several months of radiation and chemo and surgery.”

“This is me waking up from my colonoscopy last week to hear the surgeon saying he’d found what he estimated was at least stage 3 colorectal cancer,” Branlin captioned a photo of himself in a hospital bed. “Now, when your doctor says ‘at least’ that’s usually not a good sign. Stage 3’s survival rate is something like 75%. Stage 4 is not where you want to be.”

The following day, when Branlin underwent a scan to see if the cancer had spread to other organs, he noticed he was “the only patient in the waiting room under 65” and “started thinking how unfair it all seemed.”

“I’m active, I’m in shape. I don’t party and never did (my sister will claim this is because I was never invited to parties and that’s technically true),” he wrote. “I eat well, go to bed early and follow all the latest health trends. I’m longevity’s freaking poster child. I never considered I’d get cancer young.”

It was only after a 5-year-old boy entered the same waiting room for a similar scan that Branlin realized that his own situation was a little less “unfair” than he initially thought, as he noted that “there are many types of cancer, none more tragic than the mental kind where we (myself included) start believing the malignant idea that if we make all the right choices today there’s a universal rulebook making sure tomorrow pays dividends.”

“All this to say…All we truly have is now. Tomorrow is not guaranteed. Everything is relative,” he wrote.

View this post on Instagram

Fortunately, Branlin’s scans came back showing that his cancer was technically “advanced stage 2,” as it “has not yet spread to other organs.”

“I was thrilled. No sarcasm, I fist pumped for ten seconds straight when they told me and an outside observer would have guessed I’d won the lottery,” he wrote.

Branlin, who lost mom Louise Shockey to cancer in September 2023 at age 70, went on to thank his wife, Ashley, and “incredible circle of family and friends for circling the wagons” during this tough time.

“You all have some big bad and serious wagons and had this been stage 4 it would have a battle for the ages that would have left every last cancer cell quivering in its nasty little boots,” he concluded. “As it is, it will be several months of radiation and chemo and surgery for me but I endeavor to be grateful for every second of it.”