Dance Moms favorite Kelly Hyland is opening up about her breast cancer battle. She says there were tell tale signs ahead of the diagnosis. “The first red flag was my significant weight loss,” she told E! News in an exclusive interview. “I lost enough that others noticed and would ask for my dieting hacks, but there was nothing I had changed in my day-to-day to cause the loss.” Later, she discovered a lump on her breast. “I booked myself a mammogram,” she said, stressing the importance of self-examinations. “I had just had one done eight months prior and the results came back clean. However, this new mammogram and sonogram did not, it came back showing a mass.”
A biopsy and further testing confirmed she has carcinoma stage 1, grade 3, meaning that her breast cancer is very fast-moving. “I went from clean results to a malignant mass in eight months,” she said. “I was shocked that it had grown that quickly and scared of the battle I knew I was about to face.
Breaking the news to her three children was one of the hardest parts of the journey, especially because they live in different states. “I would’ve liked to have told them in person,” she said, noting she lives in Florida while her kids are in Pittsburg, adding,, “but a phone call was the best I could do given the circumstances. I did a four-way call with all of my kids because I wanted to tell them at the same time and make sure they were all given the same information.”
Paige knew immediately something was wrong. “I had an instant gut feeling something was off,” the dancer told E! News. “As soon as she told us the bad news, I felt like I was in shock and then quickly hit with a whirlwind of emotions. Not only was I scared, I was angry, sad, and confused why this would happen to someone as amazing as my mother.”
For Brooke, it took seeing her mom to ease her anxiety. “The second I was reunited with my mom, I was reminded of exactly who she is and my fears began to slip away,” she said. “She is the strongest woman I know and I am confident that she will come out on top of this and I will be there every step of the way. She has so much love and support in her corner!”
Kelly is currently on the second of six initial chemotherapy treatments. She will then undergo surgery before beginning radiation and then 11 more treatments. She is optimistic about the outcome. “I have a long journey ahead.”
