Ananda Lewis Breast Cancer Diagnosis

We’re sending heartfelt well wishes to a TV host who’s bravely revealing some shocking news.

Source: Paul Archuleta / Getty

Former MTV veejay/host of BET’s “Teen Summit” Ananda Lewis is sharing that she’s been battling stage 3 breast cancer for the past two years.

The 47-year-old shared the news in an intimate Instagram video on Thursday as part of Breast Cancer Awareness Month. After apologizing to her friends and family for keeping her diagnosis under wraps, she noted that for years she refused mammograms and likened her own mother’s breast cancer to radiation from mammography X-rays.

“I am sharing this with you today because it is the beginning of Breast Cancer Awareness month and I have been fighting to get cancer out of my body for almost two years,” said Ananda who’s an advocate for early detection.

“For a really long time, I have refused mammograms, and that was a mistake,” said Lewis. “I watched my mom get mammograms for almost 30 years, and at the end of that, she had breast cancer, and I said, ‘Huh? Radiation exposure for years equals breast cancer. Yeah, I’m going to pass. Thanks anyway.’”

Ananda later realized that she was wrong and with mammograms, doctors could’ve caught her cancer earlier. With early detection, her cancer would be “more manageable.”

“What I didn’t understand, and what I need you to understand, the reason why I’m here telling you my business, is because I would have had three or four mammograms by the time they caught it. Instead, I’ve had to have 2 PET [positron emission tomography] scans so far. Guess how many mammograms worth of radiation a PET scan is. Anyone? 30! 30! So 60 mammograms! You do the math.”

“If I had done the mammograms from the time they were recommended when I turned 40, they would’ve caught the tumor in my breast years before I caught it through my own self exam and thermography,” she continued. “And they would have caught it at a place where it was more manageable. Where the treatment of it would have been a little easier. It’s never easy, but I use that word in comparison to what I’m going through now. Instead, what I’m dealing with is stage 3 breast cancer that is in my lymphs. I need you to get your mammograms.”

She also shared that she’s undergoing “alternative and natural treatments” which have worked but she’s still “got a long way to go.” Still, Ananda’s remaining resilient and pledging to fight to “be here” for her children.

“I have a nine-year-old I need to be here for,” said Ananda. “I have no intention on leaving him. I don’t want to leave any of my kids. I don’t want to leave my friends or my family. Hell, I don’t want to leave myself. I like being here. So, listen, this is not how this was supposed to go but I’m just going to keep it real with you like I always do.”

We’re praying for you, Ananda! Get well soon!