Kelly Hyland, who stars in the reality show “Lifetime” Dancing mothershas announced that she has been diagnosed with breast cancer.
The former reality star recently spoke with E! News about what it was like to find out something was wrong and what warning signs prompted them to go to the doctor.
“The first warning sign was my significant weight loss,” the mother of three told the outlet. “I had lost so much weight that other people noticed and asked for my diet tips, but I hadn’t changed anything in my daily routine that would have caused the weight loss.”
Then, in March of this year, she noticed a lump in her breast and immediately made an appointment for a mammogram, even though she had already had one less than a year ago.
“I had just had a scan eight months ago and the results were clean. However, this new mammogram and ultrasound were not, they showed a mass,” Hyland said.
After a biopsy of the mass, its malignancy was confirmed and her official diagnosis was stage 1, grade 3 invasive carcinoma, which, according to the American Cancer Society, means the cancer is likely to spread rapidly.
“Within eight months, I had no visible findings, but then there was a malignant mass,” Hyland said. “I was shocked that it had grown so quickly and was afraid of the battle that lay ahead.”
Although she would have preferred to tell her three children the news in person, Hyland knew she had to call her children instead since she lived in Florida and her children lived in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
“I had a phone call with all of my children because I wanted to tell them at the same time and make sure they all got the same information,” she said, noting that “it was a very difficult conversation.”
Her youngest daughter, 23-year-old Paige, told E! News that she quickly suspected that something was very wrong when her mother asked her and all her siblings to answer the phone.
“I had an immediate gut feeling that something was wrong,” she told the outlet. “When she told us the bad news, I was in shock and then quickly hit by a whirlwind of emotions. Not only was I scared, I was angry, sad and confused as to why this could happen to someone as amazing as my mother.”
Paige added that her grandmother died of cancer, so she had a vague idea of what her mother was going through.
“We lost my grandma to cancer in 2019,” she said, “so I knew we had a long road ahead of us and it pained me to imagine my mom going through the same feeling.”
Hyland’s only son, 25-year-old Josh, said he was optimistic his mother would pull through. “I’m very confident it’s only stage one. I feel like she caught on quickly,” he said. “I know my mom is strong enough to get through this.”
Currently, the former reality star has completed two of six chemotherapy treatments, followed by surgery, radiation and then 11 more treatments. Hyland said: “I have a long road ahead of me.”