Dancing with the Stars alum Danielle Fishel gets candid about her cancer diagnosis

Former Boy Meets World star Danielle Fishel was diagnosed with early-stage breast cancer in July 2024. The actress went through two surgeries and 22 of radiation. After that, her mammogram was clear. The actress admitted that her first instinct when she was diagnosed with cancer was to suffer through it alone.

However, it also encouraged her to say yes to more things, which included competing on Dancing with the Stars.

Fishel has recently joined the cast of Dancing with the Stars season 34. She has been paired with dancing pro Pasha Pashkov.

The actress has also revealed how, ahead of filming for the latest Dancing with the Stars, she was getting ready for the new season by making sure that her body was in good shape.

Dancing with the Stars alum Danielle Fishel on what made her participate in the show

As the former child star was done with her cancer treatment, Fishel had a realisation about not experiencing enough joy in life.

It was then that she received the offer to participate in Dancing with the Stars; she viewed it as the “perfect way to cap it off.”

Fishel also called it an amazing experience as she realised how far she has come. 

“I'm going through every day, performing tasks and being there for my family and being there for work. Where's the fun?" "When they asked me to do Dancing with the Stars, I was like, ‘This is the perfect way to cap it off.' “Thinking about where I was last year in the middle of cancer treatment, and here a year later on a national stage performing a thing I've never done before, ballroom dancing, with my friends and family in the audience, it was very emotional.” 

The actress has her dancing pro partner while saying how she trusts Pasha implicitly. 

“I trust him with everything and he swears that this was the best performance we’ve ever done an we’ve now done it over 1000 times in the last couple of weeks.”

Danielle Fishel talks about the importance of yearly check-ups

In an interview with People Magazine, the Boy Meets World alum admitted that she was trying to decide whether or not she wanted to talk about it publicly, and her first instinct was to "just keep it quiet, not tell anybody, and just get through it". 

However, Fishel ultimately changed her mind and thought of using the platform to remind people about the importance of yearly checkups. 

“Had it not been for me being so on top of my yearly checkup, I may not have found this," she explained. “Had I said, ‘I did my mammogram last year, I was totally fine. What are the odds that in one year I'm going to have anything? I'll be fine. I'll put it off,’ it could have been much worse for me.”

Watch all the episodes of Dancing with the Stars season 34 exclusively on ABC and Disney+. Viewers can stream the episodes the next day on Disney+ and Hulu..Stay tuned for more updates.