Actress Amanda Peet says friends rallied around her after her breast cancer diagnosis, but she still longed for someone who understood what she was facing.
“I was really desperate to talk to someone who had lobular cancer, but it was really hard to find someone,” Peet told TODAY co-anchor Savannah Guthrie.
In an Oct. 1 interview kicking off TODAY’s Pink Power series for Breast Cancer Awareness Month, the YOUR FRIENDS & NEIGHBORS actress described the women who helped her through a frightening season. Her encouragement for someone newly diagnosed came down to something wonderfully ordinary: ask your people to help you find someone to talk to.
Peet had already shared her experience in a March 21 essay for The New Yorker, describing how her own diagnosis arrived while both parents were in hospice on opposite coasts. In the interview, she reflected on the connection between writing about cancer and remembering her mother.
“My mom was still alive for some of the time when I was writing,” she said.
Peet explained that she had not started with a clear plan to write an essay rather than a diary entry. The piece grew, and she wondered whether writing had given her another way to think about her mom and reminisce.
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Then came the response from readers. Peet said hearing from people had been wonderful, and she hoped sharing her experience might leave women facing a new diagnosis feeling a little less lonely.
Getting answers had not happened all at once. As TODAY reported from the interview, Peet recalled noticing an unusual change in how her breast felt months before her diagnosis; later, she sensed something was wrong when her usually chatty doctor went quiet during an examination.
Peet described the wait for information about her cancer and treatment as an ordeal of its own. She had expected a diagnosis to come with a straightforward next step, not a succession of answers that took time to assemble.
“If you’re an anxious person, it’s your basic nightmare,” she said.
Through that uncertainty, she had help. In her essay, the mother of three recalled calling two longtime friends who hurried to her house; she also called her sister and husband. On TODAY, she reflected on other patients who returned to work after radiation appointments while she had more flexibility.
“I think a lot about how lucky I was in so many ways,” she said.
Her account also offered a reason to take changes seriously without trying to diagnose them online. The American Cancer Society advises having a new breast lump, mass or other change checked by an experienced healthcare professional; many changes have causes other than cancer.
The National Cancer Institute explains that dense breast tissue can make mammograms harder to interpret. That general information does not evaluate Peet’s individual case, but it gives families a starting point for a conversation with a clinician.
For Peet, another kind of conversation mattered, too: the one with someone willing to pick up the phone. She described a network of girlfriends and women who knew other women, helping connect her with people who understood.
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