Revealing some pretty heavy news, Boy Meets World star Danielle Fishel announced she is battling cancer.
The actress revealed her diagnosis during the latest episode of her podcast, Pod Meets World, with her former co-stars Will Friedle and Rider Strong.
“I would like to share something with our listeners,” she explained. “Something that Rider and Will were actually two of the first people I told the news to.”
Fishel shared that she was recently diagnosed with DCIS, which stands for ductal carcinoma in situ. It is a form of breast cancer.
“It is very, very, very early,” Danielle Fishel explained about the cancer diagnosis. “It’s technically stage zero. To be specific, I was diagnosed with high-grade DCIS with micro-invasion. And I’m going to be fine. I’m having surgery to remove it. I’m going to be on some follow-up treatment. I’ve had to make a lot of decisions over the last couple of days.”
Although she initially wanted to keep her diagnosis away from the public eye, Danielle realized she could use her experience to help others. “If you’ve ever had those thoughts in your life where someone close to you is diagnosed with cancer, somewhere in your mind you think, ‘What would I do if this were me? What would I do in this situation?’”
She said she prepared for something like this. She would “suffer in silence.”
“I would not tell anyone,” Fishel predicted. “I would only tell my small, small group. And then I would just suck it up. And then when I’m on the other side of it, then I would tell people.”
As she aged, Danielle Fishel said her feelings changed. “I have really tried to learn from the experiences of others,” she noted. “Because I don’t think I did that enough when I was younger.”
Danielle Fishel Advocates for Mammograms Following Breast Cancer Diagnosis
Meanwhile, Danielle Fishel went on to share how she told her loved ones about the breast cancer diagnosis. She first told her husband Jenson Karp, whom she shares sons Adler and Keaton. She then told her family and friends, whom were able to relate to her in some ways.
“And then what I realized is the more people I talk to, the more people had their own experiences,” Fishel shared. “Either themselves being diagnosed with cancer or a family member who’s been diagnosed with cancer.”
She then advocated for everyone to get mammograms. “The only reason I caught this cancer when it is still stage zero is because the day I got my text message that my yearly mammogram had come up,” she stated. “I made the appointment. And the fact that I am good about going to my doctor’s appointments, when truthfully, it would be so much easier with as busy as I am, to say, ‘I don’t have time for that.’”
Instead, Fishel noted she decided to make the time. “And they found it so, so, so early that I’m going to be fine,” she added. “And so I want to share this because I hope that it will encourage anyone to get in there,” she said. “If it’s time for your appointment, if you’ve never had an appointment before, get in there. If you have to find out that you have cancer, find out when it’s at stage zero, if possible.”