Baywatch and Charles in Charge star Nicole Eggert has spoken out about her recent Stage 2 cribriform carcinoma breast cancer diagnosis.
The 51-year-old actress broke the news to People, per Entertainment Weekly, sharing that although she was diagnosed in the beginning of December, she first experienced “terrible pain” in her left breast in October. She ultimately felt a lump, which she noted “really was throbbing and hurting” following a self-exam, and opted to phone her doctor.
“I immediately went to my general practitioner and she told me I had to immediately go get it looked at,” she recalled. “But the problem was I just couldn’t get an appointment. Everything was booked. So I had to wait until the end of November to get it done.”
Eventually, a discovery mammogram and three biopsies revealed that she had cancer, and she admitted that “the journey’s been rough.” As she awaits guidance from an oncologist as to when she will start treatments, she said that she “can definitely feel” the lump that caused her concern.
“It’s there. It needs to be taken out,” she continued. “So it’s just a matter of, do I have to do treatment before the surgery or can they perform the surgery and then I do the treatment after.”
Through it all, Eggert cited her “biggest fear” as not being there for her two daughters, 12-year-old Keegan and 25-year-old Dilyyn, as she’s “the only caregiver.” However, this “immediately made [her] realize, there’s just no succumbing to this.”
“My fear is that my everyday hustle, everything that I do to keep everything going is going to come to a screeching halt when I’m not feeling well or I’m sick or I’m in the hospital or whatever is going on,” she said. “It’s just so overwhelming, and I’m just doing everything I can not to spiral. At night when I lay down, I panic because I’m like, well, who’s going to cover all the bills? Who’s going to do all of this?”
A GoFundMe page launched Sunday (Jan. 7) by Mindy Molinary, one of Eggert’s friends, has since raised over $17,000. Eggert shared the link on her Instagram, captioning the post, “Hope is important because it can make the present moment less difficult to bear. If we believe tomorrow will be better, we can bear a hardship today. – Thich Nhat Hnah. Link in bio- Please read and Please share ????????????.”
The “outpouring of love” that she has received has even inspired her to “want to start a non-profit for other single parents” like herself “who don’t have any family, don’t have anybody to turn to” in instances like hers, she told People.
“They take on all this by themselves because they love their kids so much, but when something happens to them, then what?” she added.