Kristen Dahlgren is cancer-free!
The NBC correspondent, 47, announced the happy news on Twitter Wednesday, explaining that after several rounds of chemotherapy and radiation she is "DONE WITH CANCER TREATMENT."
"After 8 rounds of chemo and 25 rounds of radiation I AM DONE WITH CANCER TREATMENT!! No hugs or high 5's… not even a bell to ring because of #COVID But tears of gratitude for the #HealthcareHeroes who helped me through all of the support I received. #THANKYOU #CancerFree," Dahlgren wrote.
Alongside Dahlgren's message, she shared a photo of herself wearing a medical mask and dressed in a hospital gown. Making the moment all the more special, she posed next to the plaque where the commemorative wall bell would be to celebrate her milestone.
In response to her post, Dahlgren received a number of congratulatory messages.
"Awesome!!!" her fellow NBC correspondent Joe Fryer tweeted.
MSNBC executive producer Lauren Peikoff wrote, "So happy to hear."
Dahlgren, who has been a correspondent for NBC for over 10 years, first revealed her diagnosis in December.
The news came after Dahlgren reported on unusual signs of breast cancer that aren't widely known back in 2016.
While the majority of women identify their breast cancer based on a lump, Dahlgren was reporting on a new study that found that other signs — nipple changes, dents, dimples, pain or redness — could also be indicators of breast cancer.
Dahlgren said she admittedly was not worrying about breast cancer at all last year before her diagnosis.
“Breast cancer was the last thing on my mind,” she said on an episode of Today. “I’m in my forties, I’m active, we don’t really have a family history, and most importantly, I just had a screening mammogram that was negative back in April.”
But as she got dressed one day in September 2019, Dahlgren noticed that she had a “slight dent” in her right breast — one of the unusual signs from her 2016 story.
“Beneath the dent, I didn’t feel a lump, but something I might describe as a ‘thickening,’ ” she explained. “It just felt different than everywhere else.”
After going in for a mammogram, Dahlgren learned that she had stage 2 breast cancer.
“I remember thinking at the time, this story is going to save lives. And I just had no idea that the life it would save would be mine,” she said of her 2016 report.
“It’s like a kick in the gut,” she said. “I have a 3-year-old, I have a lot to live for, and it’s been definitely the hardest thing I’ve ever been through. It’s scary. It’s really scary.”
As for why she wanted to share her story, Dahlgren shared: “My thinking is, if that story saved my life, then maybe it can save someone else’s,” she said. “And if someone sees this and notices a change in their breast and goes and gets it checked out, if one person is saved by that, then that makes it worth it to share my struggle.”
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