YouTuber Grace Helbig Shares Breast Cancer Diagnosis: ‘We Are Going for Cure Not Remission’
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The 37-year-old comedian said she has 'been feeling every feeling all day long' since receiving her diagnosis one month ago
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YouTuber Grace Helbig announced she has been diagnosed with breast cancer.
In a video posted to her YouTube on Monday, titled “I have breast cancer,” Helbig, 37, explained that she found out about a month ago and said, “It’s very shocking.”
“It doesn't sound real, but it's real,” she said.
Helbig said her specific type of cancer is “triple positive breast cancer,” and doctors believe she has stage 2A, although they “are not entirely sure yet.”
“From every doctor or medical professional or person that has any knowledge about cancer, they have said it is super treatable, it is highly beatable,” she said. “We are going for cure not remission here, which is exciting, encouraging, helpful, good.”
The comedian shared that she got her port inserted into her arm yesterday for the six rounds of chemotherapy treatments she will have. She went on to reveal that once she is finished with chemo, she will have surgery followed by hormonal therapy.
“This whole thing has been a lot, to say the least,” Helbig said. “I have been feeling every feeling all day long. I am so incredibly thankful to have an amazing husband and an incredible family and friends who have been already so helpful.”
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“Elliot and I got married last fall and I really cashed in on the in-sickness and in-health part of our vows,” she joked.
Helbig explained that she received her diagnosis after going in for an annual gynecological appointment and asking her doctor about a lump she felt on her left breast. Even though she assumed it was nothing, her doctor was immediately concerned.
“I really had to talk myself into bringing it up to her in the appointment,” the content creator confessed. “I thought I was just a stupid little girl who didn’t know how girl bodies worked and it was probably just muscle tissue.”
She added: “Thank God I listened to that little voice inside of me that finally got the courage to bring it up to her.”
Related: Stars Who Faced Breast Cancer and Shared Their Stories
After going through a mammogram and ultrasounds — which she noted were ordered “stat” — she was immediately sent to get a biopsy. Already “unsettled,” the Jellystone star said she knew something was wrong when the doctor performing the biopsy said she had breast cancer “in this exact spot,” comparing it to Helbig’s lump.
“I think in hindsight she might have been trying to, like, show me, ‘look at where I'm at five years later,’” she said.
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The podcast host also shared that she has been talking to Hank Green, a YouTuber who revealed his diagnosis of Hodgkin's lymphoma last month. She said that he has promised to send her his comedy “cancer stand-up” to read through.
“Comedy, jokes, laughing, that all really helps me process very difficult things,” Helbig said. “And not from a place of denial or deflection about the reality, but rather from a place of aiding me through the hard.”
She added: "Laughing feels like it helps me breathe within a situation that I feel like I'm holding my breath.”
She said a hard part of the process is allowing others to take care of her, saying she has been “confronted with having to put yourself first and you need to let people help you.” She also announced what the next steps are.
“This is my job now,” the former The Grace Helbig Show host said. “I’m going to fight this little bitch of a thing in my left breast as best and as strongly and as gracefully as I can.”
Helbig said she feels “confident in being able to take this on,” noting that a few years back, she felt she “had lost a sense of myself” but finally got back to feeling like herself prior to her diagnosis. She said she will continue her podcast, This Might Get Weird, and wants to continue to make content for YouTube but will “listen to myself” while also doing what is best for her health.
“The first step is just doing this, letting you in,” she said. “I believe they call this vulnerability, something I am not used to doing on the internet.”
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She also offered everyone a reminder: “Get those lumps checked, and do not be afraid to ask a doctor what you might think is a stupid question.”
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