What's Happening Child Star Diagnosed With Breast Cancer

dee - Copy

If the name Danielle Spencer doesn’t ring a bell, perhaps the name “Dee,” former adorable child star of ’70s classic TV show What’s Happening, is probably more familiar. Spencer recently revealed a shocking diagnosis to BlackAmericaWeb: she’s got breast cancer and was diagnosed only one short month ago.

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Spencer’s catchphrase on the show was, “Oooh, I’m gonna tell my momma!” She left showbiz to pursue her education at Tuskegee University where she completed a degree in veterinary science and became a veterinarian. Twenty-two years later, the now 49-year-old Dr. Spencer couldn’t be happier about her choice to leave entertainment.

Currently Spencer is seeking the best treatment for herself. “Surgery is definitely one of the options,” she shares.

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“I”m trying to get as many opinions as possible but it does look that that is what I’m going to do. Hopefully after that there won’t be any chemotherapy or radiation. With everything that I’ve been through with the spinal cord injury I know God is not going to give me another affliction. So I was completely shocked when the doctors told me.”

In 1977, Spencer was in a car accident. Symptoms of spinal cord injury showed up 26 years later, eventually leaving her near-paralysis for a time.

Spencer had been suffering from spinal stenosis, a narrowing of the spinal column that puts pressure on nerves (doctors believe it could stem from a childhood car accident). Unable to move her legs after surgery to treat the condition, Spencer, then 46, fell into a deep depression as her numbness turned into unmanageable, chronic back pain.

Bolstered by the support of her husband Garry Fields and her mom Cheryl Pelt, Spencer sought treatment at New Jersey’s Kessler Institute for Rehabilitation, which had also treated Christopher Reeve. The veterinarian says the day she was accepted into the program, “the depression lifted.”

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Like many women who suffer through breast cancer, Spencer has a family history of the disease. But she says that through the support she’s getting from her family and friends, she’s going to pull through.

It doesn’t hurt that she’s also had some good news recently –she’s been inducted into the Smithsonian Museum in the exhibition of the African-American culture! Spencer is the only child star to be inducted.

“I still can’t believe it,” she says. “That’s something people can look at for years to come, long after I’m gone.”

Visit the BlackDoctor.org Breast Cancer center for more articles.

‘What’s Happening’ Child Star Journey Past Disease & Injury To Healing was originally published on blackdoctor.org