TV reporter receives breast cancer diagnosis during live broadcast

Dillon Thompson
Updated ·2 min read

A TV reporter who was diagnosed with breast cancer during a live segment now shares more about her experience.

Ali Meyer, a journalist for KFOR-TV in Oklahoma City, received her first-ever mammogram during a Facebook Live broadcast for the station. The stream, which took place last October, was part of the then 40-year-old's coverage of Breast Cancer Awareness Month.

She assumed it would be a short, uneventful procedure, one that would remind other local women to receive regular screenings.

"I had no concerns; no lumps; no family history; no reason at all to think that my baseline mammogram would turn my world upside down," Meyer wrote in a recent story reflecting on the day.

That's when Meyer received the news she wasn't expecting. The doctor told her she had cancer in her right breast.

"I will never forget that day. I will never forget telling my husband and my girls after they got off the bus that afternoon," Meyer wrote.

Meyer's look back on the diagnosis, which was published earlier this week, unpacks how the reporter's perspective has evolved during the last year. After the live-streamed diagnosis, she continued to make her journey public, sharing social media updates as she underwent operations to battle the cancer.

That included having breast tissue surgically removed earlier this year, during which Meyer allowed TV cameras to follow her into the operation. Doctors managed to keep parts of her breast in place, but she still had tissue removed from she called "the most personal part" of her part.

"Even though surgery was my choice, it felt like forced mutilation," Meyer said of the operation. "It felt like cancer was stealing part of my body away from me."

One year after her diagnosis, Meyer says she is cancer-free — adding that she went in for her second mammogram last month. The reporter wrote that she's ready to keep using her story to help other women.

"I will never stop having mammograms," Meyer wrote. "I will never stop telling women to take care of their bodies and schedule their mammograms."