Yahoo News YouTube star Grace Helbig shares breast cancer diagnosis: 'I'm going to fight this little bitch'
YouTube star Grace Helbig is sharing the news that she's battling breast cancer.
"I don't know how to do this, so we're just going to do this. I have breast cancer," the Dirty 30 actress and internet personality began an eight-minute video posted on her YouTube account on Monday. "It's very shocking. It's very surreal. It doesn't sound real, but it's real."
The 37-year-old said she found out "about a month ago" and that she has "triple positive breast cancer," which doctors think is stage 2A, but "are not entirely sure yet." She shared that she will undergo six rounds of chemotherapy, followed by surgery, and hormonal therapy.
"From every doctor or medical professional or person that has any knowledge about cancer, they have said it is super treatable, it is highly beatable," she said. "We are going for cure, not remission here, which is exciting, encouraging, helpful, good."
Grace Helbig/ Instagram Grace Helbig
Helbig explained that she received her diagnosis after reluctantly telling her gynecologist about feeling a lump in her left breast at an annual exam.
"I really had to, like, talk myself into bringing it up to her in the appointment because I thought I was just a stupid little girl that didn't know how girl bodies worked," she said. "Thank God I listened to that little voice inside of me that finally got the courage to bring it up to her because she also thought it was abnormal."
The comedian, who rose to prominence in the early days of YouTube and has amassed 2.6 million subscribers, urged viewers to "get those lumps checked, and do not be afraid to ask a doctor what you might think is a stupid question."
Helbig, who hosts the podcast This Might Get Weird alongside Mamrie Hart, also shared that she's been in touch with author and fellow YouTuber Hank Green, who recently revealed his own cancer diagnosis, as he undergoes treatment for Hodgkin's lymphoma.
"I have been texting with him and his videos have been so incredibly helpful," Helbig said. "I am now eagerly awaiting his cancer stand-up to read through, which he has promised to send me because I'm going to need comedy through this process."
"Laughing feels like it helps me breathe within a situation that I feel like I'm holding my breath," she explained. "This is a very serious situation, I know that, but there's also some humor to be found here. I mean, the joke's not lost on me that I've spent 15 years not using my boobs to get attention on the internet and yet here we are, and that I'm announcing this during Cancer season; it's all right there."
Helbig told her fans she feels confident in getting through the tough road ahead. "This is my job now," she said. "I'm going to fight this little bitch of a thing in my left breast as best and as strongly and as gracefully as I can, pun intended."
Watch Helbig's full video announcement below:
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