CNN's Sara Sidner reveals Stage 3 breast cancer diagnosis on live TV. Watch

Sara Sidner made the emotional announcement on CNN News Central.

Veteran CNN anchor and reporter Sara Sidner on Monday shared that she has been diagnosed with Stage 3 breast cancer and that she is undergoing treatment. In an emotional announcement on live television, the award-winning journalist said she is in her second month of chemotherapy.

“I have never been sick a day of my life. I don’t smoke. I rarely drink. Breast cancer does not run in my family. And yet here I am, with Stage 3 breast cancer. It is hard to say out loud,” she said, choking up.

Sidner, 51, will also undergo radiation and a double mastectomy.

“Stage 3 is not a death sentence for a vast majority of women,” she said.

After her diagnosis, Sidner said she was shocked to learn during her research that Black women with breast cancer are 41 per cent more likely to die than their White counterparts.

She urged women of all colours to get mammograms every year and do regular self-examinations.

“Try to catch it before I did.”

“I have thanked cancer for choosing me. I have learnt that no matter what hell we go through in life, that I am still madly in love with this life,” Sidner said as she struggled to hold back her tears.

“Just being alive feels really different for me now. I am happier because I don’t stress about the foolish little things that used to annoy me.”

Born in the US to an African-American father and a British mother, Sidner was raised in Florida where she did her schooling and college.

Covering a wide range of news over the decades within and outside the United States, Sidner was the face of CNN’s coverage of the Mumbai terror attacks in 2008, when she reported from the city.

She currently hosts CNN News Central on which she made the announcement of her breast cancer diagnosis.