CNN’s Sara Sidner Reveals Her Stage 3 Breast Cancer Diagnosis On ‘CNN News Central’: “Please, For The Love Of God Get Your Mammogram Every Single Year”

By Alex Vena
Published Jan. 8, 2024, 4:02 p.m. ET

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CNN News Central co-anchor and the network’s senior national correspondent Sara Sidner revealed her Stage 3 breast cancer diagnosis on the air Monday morning (Jan. 8), per Deadline.

She broke the news by saying that “statistically,” one in eight women “will get or have breast cancer,” before revealing that she is “that one in eight in [her] friend group.”

“I have never been sick a day in my life,” she continued. “I don’t smoke, I rarely drink. Breast cancer does not run in my family. And yet here I am, with Stage 3 breast cancer.”

She shared that she is currently in her second month of chemo treatments, and highlighted that “Stage 3 is not a death sentence anymore for the vast majority of women.” However, she urged women to get their mammograms, citing that “if you happen to be a Black woman, you are 41% more likely to die from breast cancer than [their] white counterparts.”

“So to all my sisters, Black and white and brown out there, please for the love of God get your mammogram every single year,” she pleaded. “Do your self exams. Try to catch it before I did.”

She also tearfully imparted recent revelations of hers, including that she has “thanked cancer for choosing” her.

“I am learning that no matter how we go through in life, that I am still madly in love with this life,” she added. “And just being alive feels really different for me now. I am happier because I don’t stress about foolish little things that used to annoy me. And now every single day that I breathe another breath, I can celebrate that I am still here with you.

While she broke the news of her diagnosis on air, she also spoke with People, telling the outlet that she received her mammogram results — which ultimately prompted the need for a biopsy — while reporting from Israel amid the nation’s war with Hamas in October.

“Seeing the kind of suffering going on where I was and seeing people still live through the worst thing that has ever happened to them with grace and kindness, I was blown away by their resilience,” she recalled. “In some weird way, it helped me with my own perspective on what I am going to be facing.”

As she continues her treatments, which she expects to include “about five months of double mastectomy and radiation,” per People, she reiterated her hopes that her story will help others remain cognizant of their health.

“I don’t put my personal stuff out there that often, but I can do something for someone because I have cancer,” she said. “I can warn somebody.”