Embracing a New Chapter
- Reality star NeNe Leakes announces she’s leaving Real Housewives of Atlanta.
- Her husband, Gregg Leakes, was diagnosed with stage 3 colon cancer in 2018.
- Gregg underwent chemotherapy for treatment, and was declared “cancer free” in 2019.
Leakes, who has appeared on Real Housewives of Atlanta since season one in 2008, announced she is stepping away from the show and plans to embrace new acting opportunities in Hollywood. She was the only remaining original cast member from the show, but has appeared in television shows such as Glee and The New Normal, during her rise to fame. She broke the news in a video on her YouTube channel, and shared some of her favorite moments from the franchise.
Read MoreLeakes’ husband, Gregg, has also been a fixture on the show. The couple married in 1997, but divorced briefly in September 2011. They remarried on Real Housewives of Atlanta in June 2013, but a few years later, they faced yet another struggle. Greg was diagnosed with stage 3 colon cancer in June 2018 after finally getting a colonoscopy, which he had brushed off numerous times despite his wife’s pleas. He immediately started treatment.
Gregg underwent chemotherapy for treatment, and went through numerous PET scans to determine whether the cancer had spread. A PET scan is an imaging test that doctors use to detect cancer and determine its stage, and can help physicians determine whether patients are responding to treatment. In May 2019, Gregg shared a photo of his latest report from his doctors, and joyfully announced he was officially “cancer-free” after no more cancer was detected.
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Colonoscopies are So Important
Screening for colon cancer is extremely important, especially since signs or symptoms of the disease often don’t show up in early stages. Colon cancers start out as a polyp, or small growth, within the colon, and it’s a slow growing disease that can take up to 10 years to develop into cancer. However, that doesn’t mean you should delay annual screenings.
“Colon cancer is considered a silent and deadly killer,” Dr. Heather Yeo, a medical oncologist at Weill Cornell Medicine, tells SurvivorNet. “What happens is people often don’t know that they have colon cancer. They don’t have any symptoms. That’s why we screen for colon cancer in the United States.”
General guidelines suggest people as young as 45 should start screening for colon cancer. However if you are considered “high risk,” which means you have a close relative who had colon cancer or a gene mutation which points to the disease, it’s recommended you start screening 10 years earlier.
Experts explain why regular colon cancer screening is so important
Cancer Puts Life in a New Perspective
Cancer can really change the way you look at life, but when you’re diagnosed at a young age, it can lead to some serious changes in your career, personal relationships, and more. CC Webster was diagnosed with Hodgkin’s Lymphoma at just 29, and after going through treatment, she realized she wasn’t happy in her career in public relations.
"I was sitting at my desk, about two months into being back at work. We got another pitch proposal in … these were the moments that we lived for in the advertising world," CC says. "But the worst thing was, that I was staring at that proposal, and I thought … this wasn't what the last six months was for. This wasn't why I sat through 14 (chemo) drips. I resigned the next day with no plan.”
Even though her decision to quit her job was spontaneous, CC says it was the right decision. She decided to share her cancer journey with the world, and wrote a book chronicling her experience.
Hodgkin’s Lymphoma survivor CC Webster made a huge career change after treatment
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