Amy Robach Will ‘Never Forget’ What Doctor Said After Her Cancer Diagnosis

Amy Robach has revealed she will “never forget” what her doctor asked her after she was diagnosed with Stage 2 breast cancer.

The former Good Morning America co-anchor was diagnosed with breast cancer after undergoing an on-air mammogram on October 1, 2013. After receiving this diagnosis, she underwent eight rounds of chemotherapy, a double mastectomy and a final round of treatment in 2014.

During a special episode of her podcast Amy & T.J, for Breast Cancer Awareness Month, she revealed that a radiologist pointed out her breast lump to her and then questioned: ‘You’ve never felt this before?’

The disclosure came during a discussion with actor, Nicole Eggert, who was diagnosed with breast cancer last year, about the importance of undergoing yearly mammograms and monthly self-exams.

The Baywatch star recommended people “feel yourself up” and said she had previously been “lazy” about her health.

Robach repsonded: “I hate that you just called yourself lazy because that is what we do, right?”

“We blame ourselves for what’s happened and I just want to make yourself feel a bit better because when I got diagnosed—I’ll never forget—the radiologist took my two fingers, and when they found one of the lumps and she’d put it on to my breast and clearly, I then felt the mass that was there, [and] she said, ‘You’ve never felt this before?’

“And I had not ever done a breast self-exam because I didn’t think it could ever happen to me.”

Newsweek emailed Robach for comment outside of normal business hours on Tuesday.

Later in the episode, Robach also said that her breast cancer diagnosis has changed who she is as a person.

She explained: “I wouldn’t be who I am today, I wouldn’t be where I am today, without the cancer and it changes you for the better in a lot of ways.

“And I remember my oncologist saying this to me when I first got diagnosed, she said, ‘Of all of the women who I have treated, when they come back after they’re in remission, not a one of them, with some perspective, would give it back because they wouldn’t be who they are today without that journey.’

Robach said that she knows it sounds “crazy and weird and bizarre” and she jokes that she is “not in that place where I wouldn’t have given it back because I think I still would” because, she added, “you can finish your treatment and be in remission but you’ll always live with this diagnosis as there is always fear of recurring.

The podcast host is now in remission and after many a blood tests over the years, she said it is “so far so good on those tumor markers.”

While she is currently in the clear, the Robach said she will continue to be vigilant and continue to advocate for other women who are going through similar experiences.

“I want to let everyone know that early detection saves lives and that there have been so many advancements, so many new drugs, so many new treatments that are available to women, whether you’re diagnosed at Stage 0 or Stage 4, not only can you live longer, you can live better,” she said.

This isn’t the first time that Robach has spoken about her experience with breast cancer on the podcast. During the March 7 episode of the show, she admitted that she had been putting off getting her blood tests completed because she was afraid of finding out that her cancer may have returned.

“I think anyone who has survived this knows that when you go in for the blood work, it’s very emotional. Because tumor markers are what they’re looking for,” she said.

“So if the cancer were to come back in the places you don’t want it to with breast cancer [such as] bones, liver, lungs, brain, you would think that you’d get a blood test that would show a tumor marker.

“That means that you would be facing a terminal yet treatable, but ultimately a terminal cancer,” she continued. “And so I think the fear of that, you get into this mindset, I don’t want to know. I’d rather not know.”