Michael Strahan’s daughter is battling a malignant brain tumor
By Lisa Respers France, CNN
(CNN) — “Good Morning America” anchor Michael Strahan sat beside his 19-year-old daughter, Isabella, as the two revealed that she is battling medulloblastoma.
The pair appeared in a segment to share the news on the morning show on Thursday, during an interview with Robin Roberts.
Isabella Strahan was diagnosed in the fall after the University of Southern California freshman began having headaches she described as “excruciating.”
“I didn’t notice anything was off until probably, like October first,” she told Roberts. “That’s when I definitely noticed headaches, nausea, couldn’t walk straight.”
According to the Mayo Clinic, medulloblastoma is “the most common type of cancerous brain tumor in children” and typically begins in the lower back part of the brain, the cerebellum, which is involved in movement and balance.
The teen, who initially believed she had vertigo, underwent emergency surgery the day before her 19th birthday, followed by several rounds of radiation. She is scheduled to begin chemotherapy next month at Duke Children’s Hospital & Health Center in Durham, North Carolina.
“That’s my next step. I’m ready for it to start and be one day closer to being over,” Strahan said, adding that she’s feeling good. “I’m very excited for this whole process to wrap. But you just have to keep living every day, I think, through the whole thing.”
Her famous father is also remaining upbeat.
“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 said during their interview. “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.”
Isabella Strahan is doing a YouTube series about her treatment.
She and her twin sister, Sophia, are the children of Strahan and his former wife, Jean Muggli. The couple divorced in 2006.
The-CNN-Wire
™ & © 2024 Cable News Network, Inc., a Warner Bros. Discovery Company. All rights reserved.
