'Good Morning America': Amy Robach Celebrates Life to Mark Anniversary of Breast Cancer Diagnosis

By Brenda Alexander

Good Morning America's Amy Robach is celebrating life eight years after her life-changing breast cancer diagnosis. "I am the luckiest - 8 years and counting - and spending it with the love of my life and my 2 best friends! LOVE taking back the worst day of my life, my diagnosis day, and celebrating what matters most. I love you - ALSO Goooooo Dawgs," she captioned a post of her with her beau. The post included several snapshots, including one of her appearing to be celebrating the occasion at a bar.  

Robach was diagnosed with breast cancer on Oct. 30, 2013. She kicked off Breast Cancer Awareness Month that year with a mammogram she had conducted live on the show. Two weeks later, she received a phone call with the results, which revealed she had stage 2 invasive breast cancer. She was 40 at the time.

"It can make me emotional literally thinking about it right now," Robach said per GMA of the diagnosis. "When I first got diagnosed, it's just a whirlwind of so many decisions ... and it all happens so quickly." To fight the disease, she underwent a double mastectomy. Afterward, she completed eight rounds of chemotherapy. Robach also had breast reconstruction surgery as a result of the double mastectomy. 

Robach also took tamoxifen, a daily medication that she has to take for three more years. Tamoxifen helps lower the risk of cancer recurrence. It also can induce symptoms of menopause, such as hot flashes, night sweats and changes to a woman's menstrual cycle.

She admits the treatments were grueling, both physically and emotionally. Robach also lost her hair and experienced short-term memory loss. Though she survived breast cancer, it wasn't an immediate bounce back to health. "You think you're going to celebrate," she said. "But you're so sick still. You're so weak still. All of those chemicals are still in your body."

She says it took a few years after being cancer-free to start feeling better, especially mentally. "I would say it took me a full two years before I felt like, 'OK, how am I going to live my life? What am I going to do with my life?'" she said. "The truth is, I was scared to even plan for a future, to even plan for the next year or five years or 10 years. I felt like it was maybe jinxing my health, jinxing my remission."

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