Boy Meets World star Danielle Fishel revealed Monday she has been diagnosed with breast cancer.
Newsweek reports the actress was speaking to former co-stars Rider Strong and Will Friedle on the Pod Meets World podcast when she went public with the diagnosis.
The outlet set out the 43-year-old, who played Topanga Lawrence in the 90s television show, said the disease was diagnosed after a routine mammogram and been caught “very early.”
File/BOY MEETS WORLD star Danielle Fishel – Gallery – Shoot Date: July 31, 1998. (BC Photo Archives/Disney General Entertainment Content via Getty Images)
Fishel reportedly opened the program by affirming she’d “like to share something with listeners” that she’d previously told only a few people about, including her co-hosts. She said:
I was recently diagnosed with DCIS, which stands for ductal carcinoma in situ, which is a form of breast cancer.
It is very, very, very early. It’s technically stage zero. To be specific, just because I like too much information all the time, I was diagnosed with high-grade DCIS with micro-invasion.
Fishel, who is best known for starring as Topanga Lawrence on Boy Meets World during the late 1990s, stated she is “going to be fine” and will be having surgery.
“I’ve had to make a lot of decisions over the last couple of days,” she continued.
She also reflected she always thought if she was ever diagnosed with cancer, she would “suffer in silence” and stay private until she was on the other side of the health battle.
Fishel rejected this in the hope of raising awareness and encouraging other women to get their yearly mammograms.
“The only reason I caught this cancer when it is still stage zero is because the day I got my text message that my yearly mammogram had come up, I made the appointment,” she said. “…They found it so, so, so early that I’m going to be fine. And so I want to share this because I hope that it will encourage anyone to get in there.”