‘The Office’ Star Jenna Fischer Reveals Breast Cancer Diagnosis
In a post to Instagram on October 8, The Office actress Jenna Fischer disclosed that she was diagnosed with breast cancer last year.
Beneath the cover picture of Fischer smiling at the camera with short hair, she captioned a carousel post, “October is breast cancer awareness month. I never thought I’d be making an announcement like this, but here we are. Last December, I was diagnosed with Stage 1 Triple Positive Breast Cancer. After completing surgery, chemotherapy and radiation, I am now cancer-free.”
Fischer continued in her caption, “I wanted a photo of myself in my patchy pixie looking happy and healthy to go along with this news. A big thank you to Angela Kinsey’s husband, Josh Snyder, for taking this photo. It’s just one example of the care they showed me during this journey.”
Following Fischer’s initial photo, her slides provide some detail about her health scare. She revealed that in January, she had had a lumpectomy to remove a tumor found in her breast, which was luckily caught early enough to prevent it from spreading. Despite seeing it early, she still had to undergo chemotherapy and radiation due to the “aggressive nature” of the cancer. Starting in February, she had 12 rounds of chemotherapy, and in June, she began three weeks of radiation.
She wrote, “I’m happy to say I’m feeling great…I lost my hair during chemotherapy, but thanks to some great wigs and hats with hair (which my family affectionately called Wigats), I have been able to wait until now to reveal all that has been going on for me.”
Fischer shared what prompted her decision to tell the public: “I’m making this announcement for a few reasons: One, I’m ready to ditch the wigs…Two, to implore you to get your annual mammograms. You can also ask your doctor to calculate your Breast Cancer Risk Assessment Score and get any additional screenings required. I’m serious, call your doctors right now…if I had waited six months longer, things could have been much worse.”
Fischer declared that “it takes a village to fight cancer” and thanked the medical staff and her family and friends for their care and support. She ended her slideshow with pictures of her ringing a bell in the backyard with her family and confetti to celebrate the end of her treatment.
In the slides, she said, “After my final chemo and radiation treatments, [husband] Lee asked me if there was anything I wanted to do to celebrate. I said I simply wanted to ring a bell with the kids in our backyard, with everyone throwing confetti. So, we did it.”
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