Photo: Nathan Congleton/NBC
Kristen Dahlgrenis opening up about an inspiring part of her breast cancer recovery journey.
The NBC correspondent, 48,shared an account withTodayon Wednesday of her recent trip with the women ofiRise Above, a foundation for women going through struggles similar to hers.
Almost two years afterfirst sharing her diagnosis, Dahlgren embarked on a Utah rock-climbing trip with a group of the women from the foundation, which focuses on the benefits of “fitness, mindfulness, camaraderie and adventure” as a means to move forward with breast cancer.
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After recentlysharing details of her challenging road to recovery, Dahlgren encountered other empowered and determined women on the journey who were dealing with related issues.
Like her, many of the women on the trip were under the age of 49, including two women who received their cancer diagnoses while pregnant.
While interviewing one of those women,iRise founder Gillian Lichota, Dahlgren reflected that “for a lot of us, you think that part of your life is over when you get a breast cancer diagnosis.”
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Lichota replied, “I think a lot of women mourn what they thought their life was going to be, but I think it’s important that women realize that this is an opportunity to be transformed.”
The video showed Dahlgren, admittedly terrified of heights, experiencing that transformation when she “stepped off a cliff” and climbed down a rock wall near Zion National Park, and the crowning moment at the end when she yelled, “I did it!”
Dahlgren toldCarson Daly,Hoda Kotband the rest of theTodayteam that the trip was “transformative” and that, after she returned, her husband told her, “you are you again.”
She also reflected that “there is no road map for this… these women helped me see what can be next.”
More of the segment is featured on Wednesday’sNBC Nightly News with Lester Holt.
Earlier this month, Dahlgren penned anessay forTodaydetailing where she is in relation to her recovery, writing that her “lowest points have come not with diagnosis or chemotherapy, but at a time when I was supposed to be ‘cancer-free.’ "
“But cancer is not linear. In fact, for many it hovers, long after the cells have been blasted from your body,” she added, going on to detail some of the “potentially crippling” side effects of her treatment, which included a mastectomy and removal of cancerous lymph nodes.
Since last sharing an update onTodayin October 2020, she wrote, “I have endured three more painful surgeries. One, to reconstruct my breasts using natural tissue from my abdomen and potentially restore some feeling I had lost, and then two more when that was a devastating failure.”
“It’s important to note my experience is completely different than the multiple women I talked to in researching my surgery, reinforcing the fact there is no cancer playbook,” Dahlgren noted in her essay.
On Wednesday, Dahlgren shared that 300,000 women in the U.S. are expected to be diagnosed with breast cancer this year, and that 1 in 5 will be under 49.
source: people.com
