14 DAY TRIAL // After battling breast cancer some years back, Robin Roberts, the famous anchorwoman on ABC's Good Morning America, has yet another difficult struggle ahead: she's just revealed that she was diagnosed with MDS.
Below is the touching interview in which she makes the shock announcement.
Myelodysplastic syndrome is a blood and marrow condition that Roberts developed after she received chemotherapy for breast cancer in 2007.
She says she will start treatment immediately, which is why she decided to go public with her struggle now: because the people at home are bound to see something off about her while she gets the treatment.
Late this summer or perhaps in the fall, Roberts will undergo a bone marrow transplant, with her sister Sally-Ann Robert being the perfect donor.
“It is something that is called MDS… It is a rare blood disorder that affects the bone marrow. I'm going to beat this. My doctors say it and my faith says it,” Roberts said on the show, triggering a wave of support online and not only.
Her attitude is that of a fighter, as always.
“It's about focusing on the fight and not the fright,” Roberts says, right before joking about having a box of kleenex velcroed to the couch and how you just know that “that's never a good sign.”
Her co-host George Stephanopoulos noted that she was an inspiration for everybody out there for the way she handled the situation: Roberts got the diagnosis on what she calls the biggest day of her career, the day she got to interview President Barack Obama.
“I am just in awe of the way you've handled this, such professionalism, showing such amazing respect for our whole family, but especially for everyone who watches, every single day,” Stephanopoulos says, holding Roberts' hand.
“We want you to know we love you, and we know you're going to beat this, and we believe in you, and you're going to hit this with all the courage and grace you show in your whole life,” he adds.
