Good Morning America co-anchor Robin Roberts will tell the story of her battle with breast cancer tomorrow night in a report for Nightline. The special includes never before seen footage of Roberts including her last visit to the doctors’ office on her final day of chemotherapy, and behind the scenes on the day she finally decided to remove her wig. According to ABC, in one of the most poignant moments, Roberts explains why it is that cancer patients are often so reluctant to shave their heads although their hair is already falling out in clumps, and what it took for her to make that decision.
More in the press release after the jump…
IN HER OWN WORDS: ROBIN ROBERTS SHARES HER VERY PERSONAL JOURNEY LIVING WITH BREAST CANCER ON WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 8th
Tomorrow, Good Morning America co-anchor Robin Roberts will tell the story of her battle with breast cancer in an extraordinarily honest and emotional report, a story that Roberts says she has not been ready to tell until now. Roberts, who announced she had been diagnosed with cancer on Good Morning America, continued to work as co-anchor of the program throughout her treatment, but hid the emotional and physical hurdles she was dealing with behind the scenes. Now, for the first time, in an intimate half-hour program, Roberts talks candidly about what she was going through. She talks in depth about the day she received the news she had cancer. Her doctor delivered the news to her as she was taxiing to the gate at the Atlanta airport, on her way to report a high profile story about the victims of Virginia Tech. Roberts explains the struggle to keep her composure while working and traveling. She also discusses her decision to go public with her diagnosis on Good Morning America, despite fears that breast cancer would become her whole identity. She also talks about how those fears persist although she says she is now part of a club of “survivors.” “I’ve got a lot of pink in my office these days, and I never was much for pink before all this,” says Roberts, “but it’s my favorite color now.” Roberts describes the moment she learned that her tumor was more “nasty” than doctors had originally thought, her efforts to keep working while undergoing chemotherapy, and the wrenching day that she realized she was losing her hair. In one of her most poignant moments, she explains why it is that cancer patients are often so reluctant to shave their heads although their hair is already falling out in clumps, and what it took for her to make that decision. This special edition of Nightline includes never before seen footage of Roberts including her last visit to the doctor’s office on her final day of chemotherapy, and behind the scenes on the day she finally decided to remove her wig, her “anchor hair.”
Roberts says she thought long and hard before deciding to make this program. She has been inclined to keep the most personal aspects of her struggle private. Roberts made the decision to share the reality of her experiences when she realized one day that she really did feel like a “survivor,” and decided that in sharing the most difficult details of her own journey she might help others diagnosed with cancer and their caregivers.
“The first time I was told ‘You’re a Survivor!’ it was very early on. My doctors said that, and I felt like there was a “You’re a survivor, look at you, look at you little survivor! Come one, buck up! And I know I was just looking at him going like ‘You gotta be kidding me, I’m feeling anything but.” Roberts continued, “I didn’t really believe it at the time. It was kind of like I was saying it but I wasn’t believing it. And now, I do.”