A lot of people tend to think that celebrities live in a world above everyone else. While it is true that they do experience different things than most of the population (like award shows, being followed by reporters, etc.) there are some things that these celebrities experience too.
Many of them do live particularly normal lives when not in public, but similarities can go even deeper than that. Celebrities experience the same illnesses and ailments as the rest of the population. Even cancer. Cancer does not discriminate based on class, economic status, fame, occupation, race, sex or anything else you can think of. Anyone can experience it.
Cancer is one of, if not the most, challenging thing a person can go through. Maybe you’re reading this and you’ve received a diagnosis, or you know someone close to you that’s been diagnosed. If you’re feeling alone right now, remember that there are thousands of other people going through the same thing.
Even some of the most prominent celebrities in America have battled cancer. Here are five that you may or may not have know battled (and survived) cancer.
1. Robin Roberts
Robin Roberts is a co-anchor on the show Good Morning America. She was diagnosed with breast cancer back in 2007. On August 3rd she underwent surgery before undergoing eight chemotherapy treatments. Then, starting in January 2008, she had radiation therapy for two and a half months. That was not the end of her health journey, though. In 2012 she was diagnosed with myelodysplastic syndrome, a disease of the bone marrow, and took a break from GMA to receive a transplant from a donor.
Myelodysplastic syndrome is a very serious kind of cancer because it can progress into leukemia, which is a blood cancer that wrecks the body’s infection-fighting capabilities. Robin was lucky enough to have her sister as a matching donor.
Robin has been the co-anchor of Good Morning America since 2005. To this day she has not left Good Morning, aside from her break in 2012. Many people only know her through her time with GMA, but between 1990 and 2005 she was a sportscaster with ESPN as well. She did not work for GMA until 1995.
2. Ben Stiller
The famed Zoolander actor (or you may know him from his many other box-office hits) revealed back in June 2014 that he had been diagnosed with prostate cancer. Prostate cancer is by far the most commonly occurring cancer in men, and only has a 30% 5-year rate of survival after it spreads to other parts of the body. He had prostate surgery and since then has not had any trouble. The surgery he had was a laparoscopic radical prostatectomy.
Ben states that he is a lucky man and credits the PSA test for “saving his life”. The PSA test is circled with controversy from many believing it can lead to over-diagnosis. Being over-treated for prostate cancer has a definite likelihood of leading to sexual issues and urination issues later on. Regardless, the actor still advocates for it.
3. Christina Applegate
Christina has starred in multiple movies including Anchorman, Bad Moms, Hall Pass, and The Sweetest Thing. In April 2008, when she was 36, she found out that she’d been diagnosed with breast cancer. She knew the pain that cancer patients went through because her mother was also a breast cancer survivor.
Later that year, in July, she decided to go through a double mastectomy surgery. She had both of her breasts removed so her cancer could never come back. Christina inherited the BRCA gene from her mother, which is the gene that predisposes her to a much greater risk of breast cancer. Not only that, it is linked to an increased risk of ovarian cancer as well. For that reason, she had her ovaries and fallopian tubes removed as well.
4. Hugh Jackman
The X-Men actor, Wolverine himself, fights an ongoing battle against skin cancer. He had his first removal of basal cell carcinoma back in 2013 and has had his sixth removal only a couple of years ago.
Basal cell carcinoma makes up the majority of skin cancer cases. It is usually not fatal but regardless must be taken very seriously. They do not tend to metastasize (spread) often, but they may go deeper into the skin than they appear.
5. Sheryl Crow
The popular country singer found out in 2006 through a mammogram that she had stage one breast cancer. She went on to get a lumpectomy (cancerous tissue removal) and then undergo radiation therapy. After 33 different radiation treatments over the course of 7 weeks, she was finally rid of cancer.
She advocates strongly for women’s health and suggests that women put their own self-care over everybody else. In addition to that, she supports multiple causes such as Feeding America, the Elton John Aids Foundation, and many others.