My next guest is someone that many of us woke up to
for 20 years on Good Morning America.
She is the award winning journalist and author, Joan Lunden.
Now on GMA,
Joan frequently shared her life and personal stories.
Then in 2014, she announced that she had breast cancer
and she shared that experience with the world as well.
And now she's on a mission to help others.
Here's an excerpt from Joan Lunden, Cancer Chronicles.
Breast cancer can happen to anyone.
Two, three days after I got the diagnosis,
and here I was in this unique position
where all of a sudden I was given an opportunity
to learn as much as I could and to share it with others.
This is what chemotherapy looks like.
Well, I'm back from surgery.
And this is the best Graham Cracker.
Right here I am.
This is round two of my chemotherapy regimen.
This Monday, January 5th.
This is the first day of my radiation therapy.
Every person that reaches out to me on social media
and says, thanks, you took the scary out of it.
I knew what to expect, makes it all worthwhile.
Oddly, a horrible cancer diagnosis set me on this mission,
but it truly is my mission.
And it's one that I'm enjoying.
And quite honestly,
I think it's the most important assignment
that I've ever been given.
(crowd applauding)
Well, joining me is Joan
and thank you so much for being here.
It's my pleasure. I'm mean seriously.
(crowd applauding)
No one ever wants to hear the words you have cancer.
What was your initial reaction in that moment
that you heard those words?
So I didn't think it would be me.
I thought, you know that one in eight women
will hear those words
but boy, when you hear those words,
it's like the air is sucked out of the room.
And then all of a sudden they said to me,
you have an aggressive, very virulent,
fast growing kind of breast cancer.
And so you're gonna have to go through you know,
months and months of aggressive chemotherapy.
You have seven children...
Yes I do.
Including two sets of twins.
How did you handle telling your fa...
what a beautiful family by the way,
how did you tell your family?
The older girls,
they just literally dropped everything rallied behind me.
And along with my husband,
they were there at every single appointment with me.
I have twins who are now 14 and 16,
at the time they were I don't know, six and seven,
seven and eight,
so we sat them down
and said that I had something like a booboo inside of me.
And then there was like silence.
And then my son said, are you gonna die?
I mean, they they're savvy enough at that point, you know,
but they got it that the cancer word
that they were scared of me dying.
Yeah. Now you not only chronicled your journey on video,
but you also wrote a book,
"Had I Known a Memoir of Survival".
Why was it so important for you to share your cancer fight?
My dad was a cancer surgeon and I thought I'd be a doctor.
So I always kind of felt maybe a little,
I don't know, disappointed in myself
that I hadn't, you know, followed in his footsteps.
And all of a sudden I realized you know,
he was taken way before his time
and I thought wow, this cancer diagnosis,
if you like choose to be open about it,
it's kind of like the Baton was being passed to me
and I can carry on my dad's legacy.
As soon as I changed my focus from my cancer
and my treatment to the fight against cancer
and helping others, it changed everything.
I could be able to learn things, share information
and help others.
Is there an area of cancer treatment
that you feel people should really be aware of?
It is really, really important
that anyone going through strong chemotherapy understand
that they are at higher risk for infections.
And you just really have to talk to your doctor
about ways to lower your risk of getting an infection.
And frankly, I encourage anyone living with cancer
to educate themselves and feel empowered
so you can be a proactive member of your healthcare team
And to help others in their cancer fight,
you're part of an educational initiative now.
So tell us about it.
I'm really proud that I'm working with Amgen
on athomewithjoan.com.
On the site, you'll see my conversations
with some really inspiring cancer patients that I've met
who talk about what's helped them along their journeys.
And you can also listen to my conversations
with healthcare professionals about why it's important
for patients to reduce that risk of infection.
Look, if you know someone who is battling cancer seriously
go to athomewithjoan.com.
Not only are there interviews with amazing women,
but you can also download a guide of questions
to ask your doctor
about your risk of infection and treatment options.
Thank you so much for being here and talking about this.
My pleasure.