Nicole Eggert recently revealed that she is battling breast cancer, and doctors have now found additional cancer in her lymph nodes. The Baywatch alum revealed that she started experiencing discomfort in her left breast in October. Following this, she underwent a mammogram and three biopsies, ultimately receiving a stage 2 diagnosis of breast cancer.
“When I felt it, my heart dropped and I was like oh my god,” she recently told Inside Edition. “Nobody could take me, so I walked into every breast care center. It’s horrifying because every day and every minute that passes, you know it’s growing.”
Nicole Eggert has an uncommon ailment called invasive cribriform carcinoma. It occurs in a small percentage of breast cancer cases (0.3% to 6% as per the National Library of Medicine).
Nicole Eggert Believes Her Breast Implants Hindered the Chance to Detect Cancer Earlier
In a recent interview with People, Nicole Eggert revealed that she will undergo surgery to remove the cancer. She warns others that getting breast implants at 19 hindered her early cancer detection.
“[If] I had my smaller, natural breasts, I am sure I would have felt it much sooner,” she told Inside Edition. “When I was on Baywatch, it was very in to be very thin with big boobs. I was the opposite, so I was wearing this red bathing suit that was flattening me, the one piece, and it just, it was like, ‘Oh, man,'” Eggert recalled. “There’s nothing you can do. You can’t stuff it.”
Eggert, a mother to her daughters Dilyn, 25, and Keegan, 12, openly shared her “biggest fear” – the thought of not being able to be there for her children anymore.
Mindy Molinary, a close friend of Eggert, has started a GoFundMe campaign to financially support Nicole as she begins her health journey. The goal is to raise $100,000 to help Eggert with treatment and medical expenses.
“It’s been a long time since Charles in Charge and Baywatch” Molinary wrote on the crowdfunding page. “As a single mom, she’s had to struggle financially to raise her two daughters. She still has a little one at home and she is terrified of not being able to afford the treatments and surgery necessary while also keeping a roof over their heads. She’s lost both her parents and doesn’t have any family to lean on or help her with this situation.”