Michael Strahan’s daughter Isabella has revealed she’s battling a malignant brain tumour known as medulloblastoma.
The TV news anchor and his 19-year-old daughter shared during an appearance on Good Morning America that Isabella is undergoing treatment for the cancerous brain tumour, which develops in the lower back part of the brain called the cerebellum.
Speaking to GMA co-anchor Robin Roberts on 11 January, Isabella said she was diagnosed with medulloblastoma in late October after she began experiencing headaches during her first semester as a freshman at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles. “I’m feeling good, not too bad,” said Isabella. “I’m very excited for this whole process to wrap, but you just have to keep living everyday, I think, through the whole thing.”
The college student first noticed her symptoms when she began experiencing “excruciating” headaches and nausea. She initially thought she was suffering from vertigo, but when she woke up one morning and began throwing up blood, Isabella was encouraged by her family to seek medical attention.
After receiving an MRI scan, doctors discovered Isabella had developed a four-centimeter tumour growing in the back of her brain, sized larger than a golf ball. “I don’t really remember much,” Strahan said of his daughter’s diagnosis. “I just remember trying to figure out how to get to [Los Angeles] ASAP. And it just doesn’t feel real. It just didn’t feel real.”
Although medulloblastoma is the most common type of cancerous brain tumour in children, according to the Mayo Clinic, Strahan said that it’s “rarely" someone his daughter’s age is diagnosed with the condition.
The following day, Isabella underwent emergency surgery at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center on 27 October to remove the mass. After surgery, she went through one month of rehabilitation and several rounds of radiation treatment. “So I just finished radiation therapy, which is proton radiation, and I got to ring the bell yesterday,” Isabella told cancer survivor Roberts. “It was great. It was very exciting because it’s been a long 30 sessions, six weeks.”
In the beginning of February, the teenager will start chemotherapy at Duke Children’s Hospital and 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,” Isabella said on GMA.
She plans on documenting her journey in a new YouTube series to benefit the children’s hospital. “It’s been like, two months of keeping it quiet, which is definitely difficult. I don’t want to hide it anymore because it’s hard to always keep in,” Isabella explained. “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.”
The father-daughter duo agreed that the experience has given them both a new perspective on life. “You learn that you’re probably not as strong as you thought you were when you have to really think about the real things, and I realised that I need support from everybody,” the former professional football player said. “You think that I’m the athlete, the tough guy, you know, I can come and handle, I’m the father in the family. It is not about any of that. It doesn’t matter. And it’s really made me change my perspective on so many things in my life.”
His daughter added: “Perspective is a big thing. I’m grateful. I am grateful just to walk or see friends or do something, because when you can’t do something, it really impacts you.”
Isabella is one of Strahan’s four children. The former New York Giants star shares two children - daughter Tanita, 32, and son Michael Jr, 29 - with his first wife, Wanda Hutchins. In 2004, he welcomed Isabella and her twin sister Sophia with his second wife, Jean Muggli.
