TV Anchor Rob McCartney and the Crohn’s & Colitis Foundation Fight for a Cure
Longtime Omaha news anchor Rob McCartney still chokes up thinking about a hospital visit that changed a scared teenager’s life—and his own. McCartney battles Crohn’s disease, an intestinal condition that can yank him from broadcasting breaking news to writhing in excruciating stomach pain within hours. The high school sophomore he visited that day faced the same fight. He brought a teddy bear and a message only someone who’s lived it could deliver.
“I talk to kids and teenagers who are diagnosed and they feel like it’s the end of the world,” said McCartney, whose symptoms first struck in college. “And I tell them, ‘Hey, I was like you, I was 20 years old when this all started for me.’ But I’ve been told that sometimes kids who know that I have Crohn’s will see me on the air and say, ‘He’s still functioning. He’s living the life he wants to live.’ I try to reinforce that message because they see some hope there.”
That teen graduated from high school, then college, and became McCartney’s friend and co-presenter at Crohn’s and Colitis Foundation events. She got married, had a baby, and years later, that same stuffed animal appeared in a birth announcement—tucked beside her newborn in a crib. “I’m starting to well up right now just talking about it,” McCartney said. “It just makes you feel so good that maybe you can have an impact on someone else going through the same things. You can imprint someone’s life in a positive manner. She’s a great human being, and I’m so happy for her because she’s building her own life. She found a way through it.”
McCartney discovered a small band of fellow journeyers more than 30 years ago launching the fledgling Crohn’s and Colitis Foundation. Back then, 5-10 people met at a hospital to swap stories with people who understood the struggle. “We had commonality in our stories, like, ‘I was in the grocery store the other day, and suddenly I had to look for a bathroom real fast. I mean real fast.’ And everybody was like, ‘Oh yeah, I’ve been there and done that.’ That gave me such a sense of relief, a safety net. I had never been involved in any kind of ‘support group’ before. But now I get it. You know there’s somebody walking through the same things you are. You can look at each other and say, ‘I get it. You’re having a bad day. I’m here for you.’”
That small band has grown into a force helping find cures for the one in 100 people—an estimated 48,000 across Nebraska and Iowa—battling inflammatory bowel disease (IBD)—in the form of either Crohn’s or ulcerative colitis. The local chapter, an affiliate of the national Crohn’s and Colitis Foundation headquartered in New York, focuses on fundraising for research, education, and advocacy.
The national organization, founded in 1967, has raised over $500 million for IBD research and has been involved in every research discovery, according to Nebraska/Iowa chapter Executive Director Jason Anderson. “It almost sounds too good to be true, but our chief medical officer confirmed we can confidently say that since our inception, we have been a part of every advancement in the field,” said Anderson, who is living his own ulcerative colitis story since being diagnosed in 2001 as a young professional and newlywed. “That’s very validating for the value of the work we’re doing.”
The local chapter raises funds primarily through Take Steps walks in Omaha and Lincoln, Nebraska, and Des Moines, Iowa—all exceeding goals this year—and through its annual Night of Champions gala, which raised over $500,000 in November while recognizing medical, community, and volunteer champions. The organization also encourages pediatric IBD patients to attend Camp Oasis each July in Minnesota to help enrich the lives of those children living with the disease. “We have dynamic support from the IBD community in each of the areas—great attendance, great sponsorship, and we’re building a lot of awareness and building excitement,” said Anderson, the local leader since 2022. “And most of all, we’re building confidence within the IBD community that it’s okay to talk about your disease. It’s okay to ask for help.”
IBD Awareness Week, promoted nationally during the first week of December, is raising the bar on awareness and removing stigma from what Anderson calls a “bathroom disease”—making it tough for those living with it to open up, even with family and doctors. “The disease itself is something that can make people really uncomfortable to talk about,” said Anderson, noting the Foundation’s “Spill Your Guts” campaign that focused on patients shooting straight with their doctor, and this year’s “Let’s Go There” campaign designed to open up the conversation about IBD. “It’s really meant to say, it’s uncomfortable to talk about, but let’s go there. We need to be able to talk about what Crohn’s and colitis are, and what they do to a person. Patients need to feel the confidence to say, ‘Yeah, I have Crohn’s or colitis, but I’m so much more than that.’”
Anderson sees young leaders like his daughter Taryn paving the way. Diagnosed with Crohn’s at age 14 right before her dad’s second intestinal surgery, Taryn immediately started telling her story and raising money for a cure. Named Honored Hero after raising $5,000 for her first Take Steps walk in Lincoln, she’s now studying microbiology and biochemistry at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, determined to become a research lab scientist searching for IBD cures. “Her approach has been totally different than mine in the early days,” Anderson said. “I kept everything to myself. I didn’t talk about it, I didn’t pay attention, I didn’t read about it. She wants people to know all about the diseases, and she wants to be part of finding the cures in her lifetime.”
Determination like that gives McCartney hope. After living with Crohn’s for 45 years, he’s fierce about the future. From that first small support group to today’s growing movement, the Foundation continues building a community where no one fights alone—and where a teddy bear can carry hope from one generation to the next. “I tell kids who are getting diagnosed, learn how to cope with it until they get a cure for it,” McCartney concluded. “Because in my lifetime, maybe a cure won’t happen. But in your lifetime…definitely. In the meantime, we want to get the disease out there as much as we can so that people are more understanding of those who live with it, and they are more willing to open their wallet and we can continue all the ground-breaking research and find a cure.”
