Michael Strahan’s 19-Year-Old Daughter Was Diagnosed With Brain Cancer

Michael Strahan always greets us with a smiling face on Good Morning America, but behind-the-scenes, life has been pretty terrifying for his entire family.

During an emotional interview on Thursday (Jan 11) Strahan and his 19-year-old daughter Isabella revealed she was diagnosed with brain cancer in October of last year. The nightmare began in September, when Isabella started experiencing headaches and had trouble walking in a straight line.

She knew something was wrong, but the real sign came a few weeks later when she woke up and was throwing up blood.

After undergoing a battery of tests, including an MRI, Isabella was rushed to Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, where she learned of her ‘fast-growing, four-centimeter tumor’ that was larger than a golf ball.

Strahan actually got the news before his daughter did, even though he was across the country in New York at the time.

I don’t really remember much. I just remember trying to figure out how to get to LA ASAP. And it just doesn’t feel real. It just didn’t feel real.

You may remember Strahan was absent from GMA for nearly a month late last year due to “personal matters” and now we know what those personal matters were.

The official name given for her condition is Medulloblastoma, a type of malignant tumor that accounts for about 20 percent of all childhood brain tumors.

The day before her 19th birthday, Isabella underwent emergency surgery to remove the tumor — and then had to relearn how to walk with assistance from her twin sister, Sophia. She also underwent radiation therapy and 30 days of rehabilitation.

Things are finally starting to look up for Isabella, but she does have to relocate back to the East Coast to start chemo at a Children’s Hospital in North Carolina.

That’s my next step. I’m ready for it to start and be one day closer to being over. I’m very excited for this whole process to wrap. But you just have to keep living every day, I think, through the whole thing.

Our thoughts certainly go out to her!