Jenna Fischer recently took to social media to reveal the breast cancer diagnosis she received last year—and to share the incredible news that she is now cancer-free.
“October is breast cancer awareness month,” she captioned a photo shared to her Instagram grid. “I never thought I’d be making an announcement like this but here we are. Last December, I was diagnosed with Stage 1 Triple Positive Breast Cancer. After completing surgery, chemotherapy and radiation I am now cancer free.”
She continued, “I wanted a photo of myself in my patchy pixie looking happy and healthy to go along with this news. A big thank you to Angela Kinsey’s husband Josh Snyder for taking this photo. It’s just one example of the care they showed me during this journey.”
In the post, Fischer shared more details about her diagnosis, explaining that “Triple Positive Breast Cancer is an aggressive form of breast cancer, but it is also highly responsive to treatment.” After a lumpectomy in January, she was relieved to learn that her cancer had been caught early and hadn’t spread. However, due to the breast cancer’s aggressiveness, she still had to get chemotherapy and radiation to ensure it didn’t return.
Fischer’s full post is worth a read, but one of her most important takeaways was her reason for sharing her story. “I’m making this announcement for two reasons,” she wrote. “One, I’m ready to ditch the wigs. Two, to implore you to get your annual mammograms.” She added that her “tumor was so small, it could not be felt on a physical exam,” and warned that if she had “waited six months longer, things could have been much worse.”
Celebrities like Jennifer Garner, Ellie Kemper, Angela Kinsey, and Olivia Munn flooded the comments, praising her openness. Many others thanked her for sharing, including one follower who wrote, “Because of this I followed up after my mammogram because I too have dense tissue.”
