On Aug. 19, “Boy Meets World” star Danielle Fishel announced that she was diagnosed with cancer.
“So I would like to share something with our listeners, something Ryder and Will were two of the first people I told the news to. I was recently diagnosed with DCIS, which stands for ductal carcinoma in situ, which is a form of breast cancer,” Fishel shared with the listeners of the “Pod Meets World” podcast.
Fishel, 43, continued, reassuring her fans that she will be okay. “It is very very very early. It’s technically stage 0.”
The mom of two says she’s undergoing surgery to treat the cancer, adding “I’m going to be fine.”
“I’ve had to make a lot of decisions over the last couple of days,” Fishel explained. “The only reason I’m sharing it is because, you know if you ever had those thoughts in your life where someone close to you is diagnosed with cancer somewhere in your mind you go, ‘What would I do if this were me?’”
“For some reason,” Fishel continues, “I have always thought, ‘I would suffer in silence. I would get the diagnosis. I would not tell anyone, I would tell only my small small group and then I would just suck it up.’”
The actress said only when she was on the “other side of it” would she share her story. However, as Fishel admits, as she’s gotten older she’s made more of an effort to learn from others experiences.
“One of the women I have learned from is (author) Glennen Doyle. She often talks about how a lot of people like to save sharing their experiences until they’ve come out on the other side of it, so that they are able to say ‘here’s the pretty picture of it all. Here’s what I’ve learned.’”
But as Fishel has come to learn herself, it’s that people have the most to gain from the beginning of the story or the “messy middle” of the story.
“The only reason I caught this cancer when it was still Stage 0 was the day I got my text message that my yearly mammogram had come up, I made the appointment,” Fishel explained. “The fact that I am good about going to my doctors appointments, when truthfully it would be so much easier, with as busy as I am, it was be so easy to say ‘I don’t have time for that, I went to my mammogram last year, I was fine last year.’”
Now, Fishel hopes the beginning of her story will encourage others to get in there. “If it’s time for your appointment, if you’ve ever had an appointment before, get in there.”