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A sobering announcement on Good Morning America today: Joan Lunden has been diagnosed with breast cancer, the journalist revealed. Lunden sat down with breast cancer survivor Robin Roberts to talk about the challenge she now faces. She says she's gone into "the warrior mode" and the cancer was found early -- that's the good news. The bad news is that it's a very aggressive form of cancer, so she's preparing for surgery and likely chemotherapy and radiation treatments as well.
Lunden is putting on a brave face about her diagnosis, but she gave us a glimpse of how she felt when she first got the news. Oh my God, it breaks my heart! But I think it's what a lot of us would feel if we were in her shoes.
I heard those words that every woman fears and never wants to hear, "You have breast cancer." In the beginning, it's such a shock. It's a stunner … For me, I'm a health advocate, I'm all over America talking to women, saying, "Make sure that you get all of your checkups all the time." You almost feel like, "What did I do wrong?'"
It would be hard not to wonder that -- what did I do wrong? Or maybe, what else could I have done to prevent this? We hear so much about preventing cancer it almost leads you to believe that you really can avoid it, like that's totally within your power. But it's not.
I'm sure Joan was doing everything she could to prevent this illness. With 7 kids between the ages of 9 and 33 she would feel that much more terrible for leaving them behind. But cancer is tricky that way -- sometimes it strikes people who are doing everything right.
I think we should still do everything in our power to try and prevent the disease and hope for the best. That's all any of us can do. And then, we have to accept that it's not 100 percent within our power. It's a difficult mixed message to to go with, though, isn't it?
Anyway, we wish Joan Lunden the best and have hope that her warrior spirit will vanquish her cancer.
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Can you relate to how Joan felt about her cancer diagnosis?
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