Danielle Fishel, known for her role as Topanga Lawrence in the popular 90s sitcom “Life and Me,” gave her fans an update on her health and announced that she had been diagnosed with a very early form of cancer.
The 43-year-old actress announced the shocking news on Monday’s episode of “Pod Meets World,” a rerun podcast she does with her friends and former co-stars Rider Strong and Will Friedle.
At the beginning of the podcast, she spoke openly about the diagnosis and said she wanted to share something with listeners.
“Rider and Will were actually two of the first people I told the news to,” Fishel said. “I was recently diagnosed with DCIS, which stands for ductal carcinoma in situ. That’s a form of breast cancer.”
“It’s very early. Technically, it’s stage zero,” she continued, saying how early doctors discovered the cancer. She assured her fans that she would be fine and that her diagnosis was a minor condition.
“I’m having surgery to remove it. I’m going to have follow-up treatment. I’ve had to make a lot of decisions in the last few days,” she added.
Fishel, who played Ben Savage’s lover on the sitcom for all seven seasons, attributes this to a text message reminder that it was time for her annual mammogram, and that she made the appointment as soon as she received the text message.
Fortunately, the cancer cells were discovered very early.
The Girl Meets World actress admitted she previously thought she would “suffer in silence” if she was ever diagnosed with cancer, but she decided to share her experience after learning a lesson from author and motivational speaker Glennon Doyle.
“She often talks about how a lot of people prefer to wait until they’re past their experiences to share them, so they can say, ‘Here’s the beautiful picture of it all, here’s what I learned,'” Fishel explained. “But the most learning happens at the beginning of a story or in the very messy middle of a story.”
After receiving her diagnosis, Fishel initially only wanted to share the news with her husband Jensen Karp – with whom she has children Adler (5) and Keaton (2) – her parents and her brother. But she soon realized that opening up had helped her a lot.
“The more people I spoke to, the more of them had their own experiences with being diagnosed with cancer, either themselves or a family member,” Fishel said. “A world of resources and experiences to share by sharing and things to learn.”
She also hopes that her own experiences will encourage others to take the step of becoming a doctor.
“If you have to find out you have cancer, you want to find out at stage zero if possible,” Fishel said.
