SerpApi.Org
The podcast host says despite a cancer diagnosis, ‘Life is not over. Life is just beginning,’ during an appearance on ‘SHE MD’
NEED TO KNOW
- Amy Robach was diagnosed with stage 2 breast cancer at 40 after an on-air mammogram in 2013
- She shared her journey with Dr. Thaïs Aliabadi and Mary Alice Haney on the July 23 episode of the SHE MD podcast.
- Robach emphasizes the lasting mental and emotional impact of a cancer diagnosis and the power of sharing stories
Amy Robach knows first-hand that anyone can be diagnosed with breast cancer — regardless of family history or age.
“I did not think cancer could happen to me,” Robach said on the July 23 episode of SHE MD, a Dear Media podcast cohosted by Dr. Thaïs Aliabadi and Mary Alice Haney. The former Good Morning America anchor was asked to get a mammogram on air in 2013, after which she was diagnosed with stage 2 breast cancer.
Cancer, Robach said, “wasn’t in my family. My mom is one of nine. My dad is one of six. All my grandparents were alive at that point and no one in my family had breast cancer. Really, there wasn’t a lot of cancer in my family at all, so I really felt invincible.”
At the time she had the mammogram, Robach, now 53, was only 40. It wasn’t until 2024 that all women aged 40 and above, regardless of family history, were recommended to get mammograms. But she agreed to the on-camera scan because “I literally thought that I was doing it for other women, that I was doing it for someone else. I had no idea that I was actually going to be saving my own life.”
After her diagnosis, Robach underwent a double mastectomy, as well as chemotherapy. Her own health journey is why she’s teamed up with Novartis and the Breast Cancer Unscripted campaign to raise awareness about the risks of breast cancer.
“I thought if I didn’t have a family member or I didn’t know somebody who I was related to who had breast cancer, I really didn’t think that I could get it,” Robach shared on SHE MD. “I didn’t think I was somebody who was susceptible to breast cancer because no one in my family had it. That was the biggest misconception I had.”
But while she underwent treatment more than a decade ago, the podcast host — she and fiancé T.J. Holmes host the news roundup Amy & T.J. — explains that cancer is never truly in the rear-view. “Once you’re diagnosed with breast cancer, that cancer stays with you mentally, even if physically you have it cut out, the treatment is over and all the doctors tell you you’re cancer free,” she says. “It never leaves you. That cancer diagnosis is a lifetime diagnosis because you act differently, you behave differently, you treat your body differently, and you have to deal with some real mental health aspects that come with this disease.”
But, as Robach shares, “This isn’t some depressing cancer video. This is inspirational.”
Take PEOPLE with you! Subscribe to PEOPLE magazine to get the latest details on celebrity news, exclusive royal updates, how-it-happened true crime stories and more — right to your mailbox.
“You are going to get strength. You are going to feel empowered, and you’re going to feel motivated to be your own best advocate,” she explains about a cancer diagnosis. “Life is not over. Life is just beginning. It’s just a new normal. You will feel less alone, and you will be inspired.”
Robach says she’s found power in sharing her health journey: “When you tell your story, you have no idea the reach that it can have. Even if it’s within your own small circle of friends or your community, you are absolutely going to empower and inspire other women to go get their tests done because they think, ‘If it could happen to her, it could happen to me.’ “
As she says: “The power of one voice is real.”
Read the original article on People
