Robin Roberts returned to the “Good Morning America” anchor desk this morning, five months to the day since she underwent a bone marrow transplant to treat myelodysplastic syndrome or MDS, a rare blood disorder.
“I keep pinching myself and I realize that this is real. This is really happening,” Roberts, 52, said. “Faith, family and friends have brought me to this moment and I am so full of gratitude.”
Roberts looked slightly thinner, not surprising for someone who has undergone major medical treatment and not surprising for regular “GMA” viewers, who have seen her in periodic updates through her treatment.
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Several time she praised those viewers, who have showered her and the show with tweets and other messages of support.
She continued her morning dialog with a wealth of gratitude and thank you’s
“There’s so many people that I want to thank throughout the morning, my doctors and nurses and family and colleagues and people who have sat in this chair and those who have blazed the trail before me,””As my mother said, ‘We all have something,”Everyone’s story has purpose and meaning and value and I share this morning, this day of celebration, with everyone.”
Read: Robin Roberts Tweets About Milestone
Two minutes into her broadcast this morning, President and First Lady sent a taped message welcoming her back. Mrs Obama emphatically informed Robin, ‘The Obama family has been praying for you and we look forward to talking to you in a few days.” Robin will be sitting down to talk with the President and First Lady in a few days.
Roberts, in return, joked that her still-short hair has “little bangs” — a reference to Michelle Obama’s own much-discussed set of “midlife crisis” bangs.
You can watch the video of the special message here.
“It’s something like this,” she told them in a candid conversation. “Looking into Sam’s blue eyes. …I love how we’re sitting, how we would be sitting. …But I know when I sit back down, right in this chair, and I look over and I see you and I see you and I see you and I see you, it’s gonna be, all is right in the world. And it’s gonna seem like no time has passed at all.”
Roberts’ return to the show’s Times Square studio alongside her co-anchors George Stephanopoulos, Josh Elliott, Lara Spencer and Sam Champion, was a moment she had visualized during her recovery.
Wednesday’s show included messages from her old ESPN colleagues, basketball star Lebron James, her medical team at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center and a choir.Besides the interview with Michelle Obama, Roberts will also be on hand for Oscar coverage this weekend.
Roberts said she’ll be “listening” to her body as well, making sure that she recognizes what it tries to tell her about how she feels as her recovery moves forward. “Part of the reason I have been able to recover as I have, so well,” she said, is because she was in relatively good health before her diagnosis.
Welcome Back Robin! We are all so thrilled for Robin and beyond excited to see her back at GMA happy and healthy. What do YOU think?
