CNN's Sara Sidner Emotionally Reveals Stage 3 Breast Cancer Diagnosis

Transcript

00:00 "Here I am with stage three breast cancer. It is hard to say out loud."

00:04 CNN's Sarah Seidner emotionally breaking down as she reveals her stage three breast cancer

00:11 diagnosis. "I always tell myself that I have two minds. I have the news mind and then I have

00:16 my personal thoughts and feelings and things that happen." On Monday, the anchor took a step

00:21 back from her news mind for a moment to share her personal story on air, tearing up as she

00:26 tells viewers about her health battle. "I have never been sick a day of my life. I don't smoke.

00:31 I rarely drink. Breast cancer does not run in my family and yet here I am with stage three

00:37 breast cancer. It is hard to say out loud." Sarah adds that one in every eight women will get breast

00:43 cancer but she says she's not going to give up the fight. "I am in my second month of chemo

00:48 treatments and will do radiation and a double mastectomy. Stage three is not a death sentence

00:55 anymore for the vast majority of women." Despite facing the disease for over a month, last week

01:00 Sarah seemed to be in good spirits while co-hosting CNN's New Year's Eve program.

01:04 She goes on to explain that after getting diagnosed and doing some research,

01:13 one thing in particular had her worried. "If you happen to be a black woman, you are 41%

01:20 more likely to die from breast cancer than your white counterparts. 41%." The correspondent pleads

01:28 any listeners to be proactive and catch the disease before she did but says it's made her

01:34 all the more grateful for the life she lives. "I'm learning that no matter what hell we go through in

01:40 life that I am still madly in love with this life and just being alive feels really different for me

01:49 now." Sarah's no stranger to pushing through tough moments on air. "You know this is the 10th hospital

01:55 that I have been in. I'm sorry. This is the 10th." Back in 2021, she broke down in tears while

02:03 reporting on COVID-19. "I apologize. I'm gonna try to get through this. This is the 10th hospital that I

02:10 have been in and to see the way that these families have to live after this and the heartache that goes

02:17 so far and so wide, it's really hard to take. I'm sorry, Allison." "I couldn't stop myself and compose

02:26 myself. To do that live on TV and then that feeling of not being able to control it, it was rage that

02:32 I was feeling. Rage that people aren't listening. They're not listening and they're actively doing

02:39 the opposite of what authorities are telling them. These are the experts trying to save your life and

02:44 they're not listening. No family should be going through this so please listen to what this family

02:49 is saying. Don't let this be you. You have been in the middle of every single major moment from

02:56 the beginning of COVID to the uprisings. It's been a roller coaster without a safety belt.

03:02 That's what it has felt like." And one thing that's remained a constant for Sarah, setting an example

03:08 for her viewers. "I need to make sure that whatever message I'm sending both on a personal level

03:14 and on television needs to be consistent."

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