The storm facing Brough is now a personal one

He smiles broadly and cracks jokes. He refers to his wife, Ethel, as "my bright sunshine." He tells his story without any hint of pretense, despite his celebrity for 24 years as a climatologist and weather forecaster with KTVX-Ch. 4.

Clayton Brough has faced a number of storms in his time, but he is now fighting for his life in a resolute battle with cancer.

Brough, who is nothing if not genuine, was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma in early May. Shortly after the diagnosis, he underwent surgery to remove a tumor the size of a tennis ball, which was wrapped around his small intestine. Now he is undergoing chemotherapy treatments that leave him with hiccups, among other things — but which also leave him supremely hopeful and optimistic.

After all, he felt his first pain in the back and abdomen in early April — so it was caught early. "If I had waited two more weeks, the whole scenario would have been very different," Brough said.

He added that this is the same form of cancer that afflicted Dick Nourse over at KSL-Ch. 5 some 20 years ago, from which Nourse fully recovered, and that medical science has dramatically increased the ability to fight it.

"The chances of my recovery are very, very high," Brough said during a far-ranging interview in his West Valley home. "I could have 20 more years. They tell me that if you have to get cancer, this is the kind to get, because it's treatable."

He spoke eloquently about his chances for recovery and the things that matter most to him and was effusive in praise of his internist, Dr. Kevin Stiggy; his surgeon, Dr. Clark Rasmussen; and his oncologist, Dr. William Nibley. He believes that the Utah Cancer Specialists clinic is equal in quality to the better known Huntsman Cancer Center.

Besides his role as a TV weather forecaster, Brough is also a devoted and happy teacher of ninth-graders — initially at Springville Junior High and then Eisenhower Junior High in Taylorsville. He has a bachelor's degree and a master's degree in geography from Brigham Young University, but he also teaches journalism and science. "I really love junior high kids. If you treat them with respect and love, you will rarely have a problem with discipline."

In fact, Brough has engaged in some unusual projects with his students, resulting in three Guinness World Records that he shares with them — the world's largest slide rule, the world's largest loaf of bread and the world's longest paper clip. "Young people have dreams. I tell them to dream big, work hard — and they'll be successful.

"When we did the paper-clip project, a huge semi drove up to the school with pallets containing 2 million paper clips. The students had ordered them without telling us."