While come celebrities – like Shannen Doherty – document their cancer journey, others prefer to keep their battle secret.
Of course, there are different reasons for this.
For Fox Sports reporter Erin Andrews, it was for the love of her job.
The smart and stunning sports world staple revealed that she had surgery for cervical cancer in October – right in the thick of NFL season. Against her doctor’s orders, she was back on the job five days later, she tells Sports Illustrated.
Andrews was diagnosed with the disease in September after a routine check-up (and this serves as another reminder for women to be proactive when it comes to their health).
It was a rough year for Andrews, who famously won a hotel stalker trial.
“After the trial everyone kept telling me, ‘You’re so strong for going through all of this, for holding down a job in football, for being the only woman on the crew,'” Andrews, 38, told the website on Tuesday, January 24. “Finally I got to the point where I believed it too. ‘Hey, I have cancer, but dammit, I am strong and I can do this.'”
So, she didn’t tell her fellow sportscaster colleagues that she had cervical cancer, keeping the whole experience a secret. She even worked a game right before flying to Los Angeles for the procedure on October 11.
As she was taken into the operating room at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, she reportedly told her oncologist, “I’m not missing the Super Bowl.”
Two days later, Andrews flew back to Green Bay to film a feature with Packers star Jordy Nelson – something else her doctor didn’t recommend. But, as Andrews told Sports Illustrated, it’s what she felt she had to do.
“Just as I felt during my trial, sports were my escape. I needed to be with my crew,” she said. After returning to L.A. for another surgery on November 1, she was given the clear by her doctor two weeks later.
And you will most definitely see the fierce beauty doing what she does best come Super Bowl Sunday.
[ninja_form id=104]
[ad_bb1]