Robin fought and overcame an early form of breast cancer in Five years later, she was diagnosed with myelodysplastic syndrome MDS , a disease in which the bone marrow does not make enough healthy blood cells. She underwent several sessions of chemotherapy, and on September 20, , she had a bone marrow transplant from her sister Sally-Ann before returning to Good Morning America that February. Mehmet Oz. Inspiration: The journalist said she doesn't want to be a survivor; she wants to 'thrive'.
Fighting for her life: Robin beat breast cancer in Five years later, she was diagnosed with MDS, a disease in which the bone marrow does not make enough blood cells. She's pictured after she returned to GMA in following her bone marrow transplant. Robin recalled how her mother, Lucimarian Tolliver, told her to 'make your mess your message' when she was first diagnosed with breast cancer.
I just told people that early detection is not a guarantee but it increases your chances. But my message has been, and what I've always made my message is resiliency. When Robin announced on-air that she was sick with MDS, there was a 1, per cent spike in donors on the website for Be the Match, a nonprofit that has a national bone marrow donation registry. While speaking to Dr.
Oz, journalist also shared how vulnerability has been therapeutic for her during her health journey. Hero: Robin publicly battled MDS and used her platform to urge people to become bone marrow donors.
Footage from her own bone marrow transplant aired on ABC in Why do we shy away from that? Why do we do that? Robin said that in the early days of her career, journalists refrained from talking about their personal lives and shared only the facts, but she allowed herself to be vulnerable when Hurricane Katrina wiped out her hometown of Pass Christian, Mississippi, in Robin explained that she had just joined GMA as a full-time host with Charlie Gibson and Diane Sawyer and was doubting her decision when she had to report live from the Gulf Coast the next day.
Is this the right move? Happy days: Robin celebrated her years at the Walt Disney Company on Wednesday, and was surprised with a visit from Diane Sawyer center and Charlie Gibson second from right. Anniversary: The seasoned TV host shared a video of herself thanking her colleagues and fans for their support that day.
Before Wednesday morning's show, she took to Instagram to share a video of herself thanking her colleagues and viewers for their support over the years. The first 15 years at ESPN.
Also humbling—and inspiring—were the many e-mails and personal interactions in which viewers have offered their prayers, told her their personal stories of survivorship, and described their newfound resolve to undergo cancer screening themselves.
But because they did get checked and because they found it so early, they are going to be fine, and they would not normally have checked themselves out. The unfaltering support she felt from her GMA family, including her co-anchors—Diane, Chris, and Sam—the executive producers, and the entire crew, as well as the opportunity to report to work each day and carry on with the job she loves so much was also a saving grace throughout treatment. My colleagues never made me feel that way. Everyone here—especially the executive producers—was very accommodating, but I just felt that way sometimes.
Despite the frustrations that she encountered on a personal level, her time at work allowed her to maintain a sense of normalcy and routine during a time that was anything but normal. To be able to come into work was like being put back together again—like Humpty-Dumpty.
And for two hours I got to look like I used to look before cancer. In fact, Robin says, the GMA segments that dealt with her hair loss were those that garnered the most reaction throughout her public journey. For some people it even prevents them from seeking care. Before then I was just like everyone else; I was just blending in. I was going to lose my hair that day. Similarly, Robin is taking this post-treatment recovery period day by day, aware of the public interest in her story but also aware of her need to do things on her own time.
But now, as a survivor, I have a sense of responsibility to all those people who, when I was really down on the mat, would come up and share their stories with me and share their insights.
When you are blessed to get through it, you want to become that person for others. One thing Robin is certain about as she moves forward into the uncharted territory of survivorship is that she already has a pretty good internal compass to help guide her choices.
The seven principles that she set out in From the Heart: Seven Rules to Live By—those rules that have helped her chart her course throughout her life—were never more compelling than in the time since her cancer diagnosis. When, following her treatment, she was approached about updating the book, she agreed on the condition that instead of a general overhaul her update need only consist of adding one new chapter at the end.
Because, she asserted, her cancer journey was just another chapter in her life. Robin has known the value of a life ruled by principles and inspired by faith and gratitude. Give yourself a break. Hoda Kotb discusses her journey with breast cancer and her decision to make her story public. Plus, I was told that, as an African-American woman, I was less likely to be diagnosed with cancer, but now that I was, I was more likely to die from it.
What in heck do you do with that stat? I wanted other people to know that, yes, mammogram is still considered the gold standard, but if you have dense breast tissue, to ask for secondary screening. And I was very touched by hearing that so many people immediately went out and got screened. One bunch of girlfriends said they got a limo and made a date of getting their mammograms and then went to a party, and that they were going to do it annually so they could keep an eye on each other.
A chemotherapy you took for your breast cancer caused you to develop MDS. Did that make you second-guess your treatment decisions? Because I was triple-negative and young, my chemotherapy and radiation had to be aggressive. I have no regrets whatsoever that I received the treatment that I did, because it saved my life. It is unfortunate that I had the really, really rare experience of finding that the treatment that saved my life had later put it in peril.
It came out of the blue. I was doing well, getting my checkups, and then I started feeling a bone-weary kind of fatigue. My blood counts were down, and my care team thought it was an infection from traveling. I had the bone marrow test and was as shocked as everybody else. But, again, I made my mess my message by getting the word out about joining the registry to donate marrow for transplants. I had thought it would be automatic that one of my three siblings would be a match for me, but I learned that only happens 30 percent of the time; 70 percent need somebody off the registry.
Of my siblings, only one was a match. My other two were not even close. How did you decide to discuss your cancer journeys on the air, and how do you feel about those decisions in retrospect? It was difficult for me being in the public eye, knowing I was going to lose my hair, knowing I was going to be missing work, and I wanted to control the story.
I felt the prayers; I felt the well wishes. My mom was the one who encouraged me, because she and my father were always about being of service to others, and I really felt it was a teachable moment. We only shared that which we thought would be helpful to the public. They gave it for my journey, saying that, as a network and as a program, we used that opportunity to be of service. That was a real validation to us, but an even bigger one was the public responding and saying how many people had been tested and how many were uplifted and how it helped them through whatever it was that they were facing.
I wanted to work. I would hope that it falls on the patient to decide what it is they want to do. Everybody should have the opportunity, if they have to stay at home, to still get paid.
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