When Richard Simmons received a diagnosis of basal cell carcinoma, he told his doctor to stop calling him “dirty names.”
Richard Simmons discussed his cancer diagnosis from “so many years ago.”
Richard Simmons, the fitness personality known for his aerobics videos such as “Sweatin’ to the Oldies,” recently announced on Facebook that years ago, he had been diagnosed with basal cell carcinoma — the most common form of skin cancer.
The 75-year-old wrote that he had a “strange-looking bump” under his right eye that the doctor studied under a microscope to determine the diagnosis. “I asked [the doctor] what kind of cancer and he said basal cell carcinoma. I told him stop calling me dirty names. He laughed,” Simmons wrote on Facebook.
The post went on to say that the skin cancer surgeon, Dr. Ralph A. Massey had to “burn my skin to remove the cancer cells,” — a process that had to be done at least twice to ensure that all the cancer was treated.
Simmons is now cancer-free and wrote a follow-up post saying, “I have had a tremendous amount of responses on my message regarding skin cancer. It happened so many years ago. The reason I wrote these two messages is that if you see a spot on your body, please go to your doctor so they can diagnose it right away.”
Hannah Storm of ESPN opened up about her breast cancer diagnosis.
Hannah Storm, 61, co-anchor for the “SportsCenter,” opened up about her experience with breast cancer on “Good Morning America” on Mar. 19.
“I was very, very lucky because they found it so early,” she told “Good Morning America.”
Storm announced that received a diagnosis in January for ductal carcinoma in situ, which is a type of early-stage breast cancer that occurs when cells in the lining of the ducts have become cancer cells but have not spread into nearby breast tissue, according to the American Cancer Society.
“I was shocked because, again, I had had mammograms every year. I have no risk factors. I have no breast cancer in my family. I did not have a lump. I did not have pain. I don’t have any genetic predisposition to breast cancer,” Storm said. “And what I came to learn is the vast majority of women who are diagnosed with breast cancer don’t have risk factors, and so I’ve got to say I was shocked. I was scared.”
Shortly after receiving her diagnosis, she underwent a lumpectomy and is now cancer-free, her doctors have told her. She stated she will be taking an oral hormone therapy drug called tamoxifen for three years.
A “Baywatch” actress shaved her head during breast cancer treatment.
Nicole Eggert, 52, known as an actress on “Baywatch,” shared a selfie of her newly shaved head on Instagram amid treatment for stage 2 cribriform carcinoma breast cancer, which is considered rare but often has “a better prognosis (outlook),” the American Cancer Society states.
Eggert shared a video of herself shaving her head on Instagram while sitting in her hospital bed, along with the help of her 12-year-old daughter Keegan.
The actress received her diagnosis in December 2023 when she noticed significant weight gain, pain in her left breast and noticed a lump in her breast during a self-exam.
“I can definitely feel [the lump],” she had told PEOPLE before receiving chemotherapy or radiation. “It’s there. It needs to be taken out. So it’s just a matter of do I have to do treatment before the surgery or can they perform the surgery and then I do the treatment after?”
She told PEOPLE that “there’s no succumbing to this,” after realizing that she is the only caregiver for her 12-year-old daughter.
“This is something I have to get through. This is something that I have to beat,” Eggert said. “She needs me more than anything and anybody.”
A Dallas Cowboys alum died of cancer.
Don Smerek, who was a defensive lineman for the Dallas Cowboys from 1980 to 1987 died from cancer at the age of 66, according to Sports Illustrated.
“He was a great teammate, a great person,” Cowboys Hall of Fame lineman, Randy White, told the Dallas Morning News. “He was just solid as a football player and I can always count on him. He would come in on third downs and rush the passer and the thing about Don as a football player, he was 100 percent.”
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