Variety is reporting that Danielle Fishel, who played Topanga Lawrence in the popular 90s sitcom Boy Meets World, has recently revealed that she had been diagnosed with breast cancer. However, the good news is it was caught early and the actress is assuring fans that she’ll be ok. In her podcast, Pod Meets World, which she co-hosts with Boy Meets World castmates Will Friedle and Rider Strong, Fishel opens up about receiving her diagnosis at 43 years old. She stated, “I was recently diagnosed with DCIS, which stands for Ductal carcinoma in situ, which is a form of breast cancer. It’s very very very early, it’s technically stage zero.”
Fishel tells listeners that she was diagnosed with “high-grade DCIS with micro-invasion” and is planning to have surgery to remove it. She explains the big decisions that she’s made over the course of events. She admits that she had initially planned to only tell her immediate family and her friends, but no one else. Fishel stated, “I’ve had to make a lot of decisions over the last couple of days.” She thought she just wanted to “suffer in silence” and “suck it up,” but was inspired to take a different route when reading up material from author Glennon Doyle, who has argued that women need to help others at the beginning stages or during the “messy middle” of a battle instead of just waiting until they are out of the experience.
Fishel credits making her annual mammogram appointment the day she had received a text reminder to do so and explained, “They found it so, so, so early that I’m going to be fine. So, I want to share this because I hope that it will encourage anyone to get in there. If it’s time for your appointment, if you’ve never had an appointment before, get in there. If you have to find out that you have cancer, find out when it’s at stage 0, if possible.”
On the podcast, her co-hosts Friedle and Strong were revealed to be the close friends she told after her family. Friedle, who played the big brother Eric Matthews on Boy Meets World, said, “We love you, and you know that we’ve got you. Whatever you need, we’re here. You are going to be fine, and you might have some sucky days coming up, but we’re here for you.”