Actress Valerie Harper, best know for playing Rhoda Morgenstern on The Mary Tyler Moore Show and Rhoda, has revealed that she has terminal brain cancer.
The 73-year-old actress tells People that she received the diagnosis on January 15th. Doctors say the she has about three months to live. She felt numbness in her jaw while in rehearsals for her one-woman show, Looped, and was hospitalized for more tests.
Harper has leptomeningeal carcinomatosis, a rare condition that occurs when cancer cells spread into the fluid-filled membrane (the meninges) that surrounds the brain. The incurable disease accounts for less than 2% of all cancers and apparently comes on quickly and progresses quickly as well.
She told the magazine, “I don’t think of dying. I think of being here now.” Harper previously battled lung cancer in 2009.
After receivinbg the news, Harper said that, “I was stunned. And in the next minute I thought, ‘This could draw more attention to cancer research.’ I think there’s an opportunity to help people.”
My thoughts and prayers go out to Valerie Harper, her friends and family.
What do you think? What good wishes would you like to send to Harper?
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{ 1 comment… read it below or add one }
Diagnosed in January, three months to live, so she could die by the end of this month or may, somewhere in between those months. Aside tat, for 73, it’s still young to die of something so awful.