NFL player turned TV personality, Michael Strahan has recently disclosed that his daughter, Isabella, was diagnosed with brain cancer, as she disclosed in a tearful “Good Morning America” interview.
Michael Strahan said that in October 2023, approximately one month after Isabella, then 19 years old, started having headaches at the beginning of her freshman year of college, doctors informed her that she had a medulloblastoma, a malignant brain tumor.
“I didn’t notice anything was off ’til probably like October 1,” she told Robin Roberts. “That’s when I could no longer walk straight and I noticed headaches and nausea.”
The University of Southern California student woke up “throwing up blood” a few weeks later. “I thought, ‘Well, this probably isn’t good.” She said, “I texted [my sister], and she told the rest of the family.”
Isabella was taken to Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles after a series of tests, including an MRI. There, she was informed that she had a golf-ball-sized tumor that was “fast-growing, 4 centimeters.”
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The 52-year-old former NFL player claimed to have learned the upsetting news before his daughter. He remarked, “I don’t remember much.” “I just recall attempting to find the quickest route to Los Angeles. Furthermore, it didn’t feel well. It felt unreal, that’s all.”
Due to “personal family matters,” Michael Strahan missed more than three weeks of “Good Morning America” in late October. He never gave any explanation for his absence.
Based on estimates published in the Journal of Clinical Neuroscience, medulloblastomas represent approximately 20 percent of all childhood brain tumors.
Michael remarked, “But rarely someone who’s eighteen, nineteen.” However, there is still a lot to experience, so it’s still frightening. The idea that she must go through this alone is also the hardest thing for her to get over.”
Even though Isabella is still experiencing side effects from her treatment, she reported that she is “feeling good” and eager to resume her regular activities.
It is reported that Isabella will be moved to the East Coast to begin chemotherapy at Durham, North Carolina’s Duke Children’s Hospital & Health Center.
“You believe that because I’m the father and the tough guy, I can handle situations and am an athlete. None of that is relevant to this”. He said, “It doesn’t matter,” to which Isabella replied, “I’m grateful.”
The co-host of “Good Morning America” is a proud father of four children.