Boy Meets World star Danielle Fishel recently shared that she’s been diagnosed with breast cancer. The actress opened up about her diagnosis on the August 19 episode of her podcast, Pod Meets World, where she co-hosts alongside former and close friends Will Friedle and Rider Strong.
“I would like to share something with our listeners, something that Rider and Will were actually two of the first people I told the news to,” Fishel began. “I was recently diagnosed with DCIS, which stands for ductal carcinoma in situ, which is a form of breast cancer.”
Fishel reassured listeners that her cancer was caught very early. “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.”
Initially, Fishel had considered keeping this part of her life entirely private. She reflected on how she might have reacted before the breast cancer diagnosis became her reality. “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 reflected. “For some reason, I had always thought I would suffer in silence. I would get the diagnosis. I would not tell anyone. 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.”
But now that it’s her reality, she’s speaking out to encourage others to stay on top of their annual screenings. “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, 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.’”
Fishel’s message to her listeners was clear: “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.”
