A month after undergoing a mammogram on "Good Morning America," ABC's Amy Robach said Monday she has breast cancer and will have a double mastectomy and reconstructive surgery this week.
According to the Associated Press, the 40-year-old correspondent opened up, in a personal piece written about when she first got the call from a GMA producer asking her to undergo a live mammogram.
Robach said she was about to interview Marie Monville, the wife of the Amish school shooter, when her producer called, asking if she would consider doing the first-ever live television mammogram for "GMA Goes Pink" day. Producers chose her for the mammogram story because, at 40, she's at the age when it's recommended that women regularly check for breast cancer.
"It felt like a strange thing to consider given where I was and what I was about to do," she wrote, "But oddly now, it all feels connected...That day, when I was asked to do something I really didn't want to do, something I had put off for more than a year, I had no way of knowing that I was in a life-or-death situation."
Robach said she breathed a sigh of relief once the exam was completely and admitted she thought it was virtually impossible that she would have cancer.
"I work out, I eat right, I take care of myself and I have very little family history; in fact, all of my grandparents are still alive," she wrote,
Robach said weeks later she was called in for a few follow-up images and found out within hours that she was diagnosed with breast cancer.
"I was alone that afternoon, never thinking to bring anyone with me, never thinking that day would be life-altering," she wrote. "My husband [Andrew Shue] was on a business trip and my parents live across the country, but that night everyone flew into New York City and we started gearing up for a fight."
The mother of two and stepmother of three admitted she had been reluctant to have the public mammogram but went ahead after "GMA" anchor Robin Roberts told her that if the story saved one life, it would be worth it.
"So in the days to follow, if several producers and even Robin Roberts herself hadn't convinced me that doing this on live television would save lives, I would never have been able to save my own."
Robach will perform a bilateral mastectomy followed by reconstructive surgery. After surgery she will learn what treatment she will entail going forward. Robach said she was told that when someone gets cancer, many lives around them are saved because people are vigilant and get check-ups.
"I was also told this, for every person who has cancer, at least 15 lives are saved because people around them become vigilant," she wrote. "They go to their doctors, they get checked."
"I can only hope my story will do the same and inspire every woman who hears it to get a mammogram, to take a self-exam. No excuses. It is the difference between life and death."
Robach joined ABC in 2012 from NBC, where she was a "Weekend Today" host. She logged considerable time with the cast of ABC's top-rated morning show, filling in for Roberts, who has fought back from a serious blood and bone marrow disease.
