FMR MTV VJ ANANDA LEWIS, CNN'S SARA SIDNER ON BREAST CANCER
<p><pi><b>**This package/segment contains third party material. Unless otherwise noted, this material may only be used within this package/segment.**</b></pi></p>\n<p><pi><b>***This pkg contains photos from AP/Getty Images that are only cleared for use within the pkg. Affiliates may not cut these photos out of the pkg for individual use.***</b></pi></p>\n<p></p>\n<p><b>--SUPERS</b>--</p>\n<p>42-1:07</p>\n<p>Sara Sidner</p>\n<p>Reporting</p>\n<p></p>\n<p>1:12-1:20</p>\n<p>Ananda Lewis</p>\n<p>Content Creator & Former 90s MTV VJ</p>\n<p></p>\n<p><b>--LEAD IN</b>--</p>\n<p><pi>BRIANNA/2SHOT)) </pi></p>\n<p><tab />1 IN 8 WOMEN ARE DIAGNOSED WITH BREAST CANCER.</p>\n<p><tab />AND WHEN C-N-N CORRESPONDENT SARA SIDNER WAS DIAGNOSED, SHE SHARED HER COURAGEOUS JOURNEY BATTLING THE DISEASE. </p>\n<p><tab />CNN'S STEPHANIE ELAM IS ONE OF HER *BEST FRIENDS.</p>\n<p><tab />BUT SHE WASN'T THE ONLY FRIEND TO GET THIS DIAGNOSIS.</p>\n<p></p>\n<p><b>--REPORTER PKG-AS FOLLOWS</b>--</p>\n<p>"I'm sorry, yours was left, right?"</p>\n<p>"Mine was right."</p>\n<p>"A little bit different."</p>\n<p>We mirror each other.</p>\n<p>It's crazy that we're joking about it.</p>\n<p>So, what about mammograms?</p>\n<p>I'll start with you in a were you good about getting your mammograms?</p>\n<p>I, this is Ananda Lewis and she has breast cancer.</p>\n<p>She's a content creator who is known for her time hosting B ETS Teen Summit in the nineties being a VJ for MTV, hosting her own talk show in the early two thousands.</p>\n<p>She's one of my best friends as is CNN anchor, Sarah Seidner.</p>\n<p>She too has breast cancer stage three.</p>\n<p>Both of them found their lumps on their own.</p>\n<p>Sarah's discovery was just months after a mammogram.</p>\n<p>The American Cancer Society does not recommend self exams anymore.</p>\n<p>But to me, if you can tell, you know, your body, you have to advocate for yourself so much and I am terrible at advocating for myself.</p>\n<p>I will advocate for you.</p>\n<p>I will advocate, you're actually happy to do it for everybody else.</p>\n<p>I will, I will fight someone like I am a writer die be so this has been a real lesson for me to self advocate.</p>\n<p>Sarah had a double mastectomy.</p>\n<p>Ananda took a different approach.</p>\n<p>By the time she found a lump in her breast, her cancer had progressed to stage three and doctors recommended a double mastectomy.</p>\n<p>But she went against the recommendation.</p>\n<p>My plan at first was to get out excessive toxins in my body.</p>\n<p>I felt like my, my body is intelligent.</p>\n<p>I know that to be true.</p>\n<p>Our bodies are brilliantly made.</p>\n<p>I decided to keep my tumor and try to work it out of my body a different way.</p>\n<p>Looking back on it, I go maybe I should have Ananda completely overhauled her diet improved.</p>\n<p>Her sleep pursued aggressive homeopathic therapies along with traditional medicine and radiation.</p>\n<p>She improved for a long time.</p>\n<p>She says removing the toxins, physical and emotional from her body has been beneficial.</p>\n<p>But last year, she found out her cancer had metastasized into stage four, which means the cancer spread to other areas.</p>\n<p>My lymph system really flared up.</p>\n<p>And so all through my abdomen, all those lymphs were very flared up my collar bone.</p>\n<p>And it was the first time I ever had a conversation with death because I felt like this is, this is how it ends.</p>\n<p>You know, I was like, ok, so I don't get afraid of things.</p>\n<p>I was just like fudge, man.</p>\n<p>I really thought I had this, you know, I was frustrated.</p>\n<p>I was a little angry at myself.</p>\n<p>I was and I said, man, listen, I know you're coming for me at some point.</p>\n<p>But I don't want it to be now.</p>\n<p>And if you could just wait, I promise when you do come, I'm gonna make it fun for you.</p>\n<p>"What's interesting to me is that you both are saying, is it to appreciate life more now that you're going through this or is it joy?"</p>\n<p>"Mine is joy."</p>\n<p>"And I didn't realize how little joy I had in my life."</p>\n<p>"Like I didn't realize that that was not a priority in my life."</p>\n<p>"My quality of life was very important to me."</p>\n<p>"We've had that conversation before."</p>\n<p>"Like I, there's certain things I know I'm not going to be OK with and I know myself, I want to want to be here."</p>\n<p>"And so I had to do it a certain way for me, the fact that you like, I want to want to be here."</p>\n<p>"I've had times when I didn't want to be here too."</p>\n<p>"Right?"</p>\n<p>"And so you mean in, in life, I didn't want to be here."</p>\n<p>"I didn't want to go through all this um because of this during this, before this and then this journey came along and it's so weird that it was cancer."</p>\n<p>"That was like I want to be here."</p>\n<p>"I insist on being here and I insist on thriving, not just being alive, not just existing."</p>\n<p>"I want to thrive in a way that I have never felt before."</p>\n<p><b>--TAG</b>--</p>\n<p></p>\n<p><b>-----END-----CNN.SCRIPT-----</b></p>\n<p></p>\n<p><b>--KEYWORD TAGS--</b></p>\n<p></p>