Danielle Fishel, who played Topanga on Boy Meets World and its follow-up, Girl Meets World, revealed on her podcast that she’s been diagnosed with breast cancer.
The 43-year-old host of Pod Meets World explains her prognosis is very good, because it was caught “so, so early.”
On the Aug. 19 episode, she began by referencing her former co-stars turned pod co-hosts Rider Strong and Will Friedle, explaining they were among the first to know she was “recently diagnosed with DCIS, which stands for ductal carcinoma in situ, which is a form of breast cancer.”
She added, “It’s very, very, very early, it’s technically stage zero.” She also revealed she is having surgery to remove the “high-grade DCIS with micro-invasion” that doctors found.
“I’ve had to make a lot of decisions over the last couple of days,” Fishel said before adding that at first she only planned on telling her immediate family and friends. She thought she’d prefer to “suffer in silence” and “suck it up,” only telling others after she’d beat it.
That said, Fishel changed her mind after reading material from author Glennon Doyle, who argues that women need to help others in the beginning or during the “messy middle” of a battle as opposed to waiting until they’re out of the experience.
Doctors caught the DCIS so early because Fishel made her annual mammogram appointment the day she received the reminder text that it was time to do so.
“They found it so, so, so early that I’m going to be fine,” she insisted, explaining part of her reason behind going public was to encourage other women to follow suit.
She said she’s meeting with multiple doctors, including oncologists, radiation specialists and hormone therapists to plan the next steps.
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