Robin Roberts announced on Good Morning America today that she has been diagnosed with MDS, Myelodysplastic Syndrome. This link shows the GMA segment and gives a little more information about what's going on.
MDA was once known as "pre-leukemia," though it now seems better understood as a collection of several different diseases. What they all have in common is that they affect the body's ability to create blood cells; production grows slower over time. Sometimes (but not always), MDS does develop into leukemia.
Roberts mentions a recent Good Housekeeping article about her fight against breast cancer five years ago. I read that article when it came out last month, and I have to say, she's pretty impressive. I don't watch GMA, but I remember her as an anchor on ESPN's SportsCenter years ago. When she says she's going to beat this, I am inclined to believe her. (And it seems that she has some advantages that will certainly help in her fight.)
She's going to have a bone marrow transplant, with her sister being the donor. If we're looking for a silver lining in all of this, maybe it's that people will become more aware of the need for bone marrow donors, something especially important to blood cancer patients.
And, as a nice follow up to what I wrote yesterday, we can use her words as a rallying cry:
"Fight, not fright."
Good luck, Robin. We're pulling for you.
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