Michael Strahan’s daughter, Isabella, is fighting brain cancer. The 19-year-old and her father delivered the tragic news in an interview with Robin Roberts that aired on Good Morning America on Thursday.
“I’m feeling well. “Not too bad,” Isabella, who will begin therapy next month, stated.
Isabella was diagnosed with medulloblastoma in October 2023, following a month of headaches during her freshman year of college at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles.
“I didn’t realize anything was wrong until probably around October 1,” she told Roberts. “That’s when I definitely noticed headaches, nausea, couldn’t walk straight.”
She initially blamed dizziness, but when she awoke one day in late October and started vomiting blood, she realized something was really wrong.
“I was thinking, ‘Hm, this probably isn’t good. So I texted [my sister], who told the entire family.”
“That was when we decided, ‘You need to really go get a thorough checkup,’” Michael told me. “Thank goodness for the doctor.” I believe this doctor saved her life by saying, ‘Let’s perform the whole checkup.’”
Isabella was directed to Cedars-Sinai Medical Center after receiving a series of tests and scans. It wasn’t until she arrived at the hospital that doctors found she had a rapidly developing tumor the size of a golf ball in the back of her brain.
“I don’t really remember much,” the father of four admitted. “All I remember was trying to find out how to get to LA as soon as possible. And it simply doesn’t seem genuine. “It didn’t feel real.”
Isabella underwent surgery, followed by many rounds of radiation therapy and a month of rehabilitation.
“I got to ring the bell yesterday,” she explained. “It was fantastic. It was quite thrilled since it had been a lengthy 30 sessions over six weeks.”
“It’s been about two months of remaining silent, which is obviously challenging. “I don’t want to hide it anymore because it’s hard to keep in,” she remarked. “I hope to just kind of be a voice, and be [someone] who maybe [those who] are going through chemotherapy or radiation can look at.”
“I literally think that in a lot of ways, I’m the luckiest man in the world because I’ve got an amazing daughter,” he remarked. “I know she’s going through it, but I know that we’re never given more than we can handle and that she is going to crush this.”
