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CNN anchor Sara Sidner has revealed she was diagnosed with stage 3 breast cancer.
On Monday's (January 8) episode of CNN News Central, Sidner shared how the diagnosis has changed her perspective on life.
"Mentally, it has been 90% good for me because it's just opened my eyes to how beautiful this life that we have is," Sidner said. "I love my life now more than I can remember since probably 7 or 8. I really, truly feel grateful just to be here."
After having a mammogram, Sidner learned that she would need a biopsy right before she traveled to Israel in October to report on the war with Hamas. Sidner said spending three weeks in the war zone helped prepare her for what was to come once she got back home.
"Seeing the kind of suffering going on where I was and seeing people still live through the worst thing that has ever happened to them with grace and kindness, I was blown away by their resilience," Sidner told People. "In some weird way, it helped me with my own perspective on what I am going to be facing."
Upon returning to New York, a biopsy confirmed that the lump in her breast was cancerous and had progressed to stage 3.
"When I got the news, I didn't tell anybody, not even my mother or husband or sisters or friends," Sidner recalled. "I just needed to process it."
Sidner immediately started considering the possibility of death.
"The first thing I thought of was, 'You better start writing letters to the people you love because you're not going to be here,'" the CNN anchor said. "So I started writing one to my mom, who was struggling with her own health situation."
After further processing, Sidner said she realized it wasn't time to give up.
"I just made a decision. I'm like, 'No, you're going to live and you're going to stop this and you're going to do every single thing in your arsenal to survive this. Period.' And I have been so much happier in my life since ... I mean happier than I was before cancer."
Sidner expects to go through five months of chemotherapy, which she started last month, a double mastectomy, and radiation as part of her treatment. She explained why she chose to share her diagnosis.
"I don't put my personal stuff out there that often, but I can do something for someone because I have cancer. I can warn somebody," Sidner said. "To all my sisters, Black, White, and brown: Please, for the love of God, do your checks yourself. ... Don't play with this, just please try to catch it before I did."
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