Samantha Harris
Samantha Harris is to undergo a double mastectomy after being diagnosed with breast cancer.
The former 'Dancing with the Stars' co-host has revealed that having contracting the disease, she's decided to go under the knife next month to have her breasts removed to cure her of the illness.
Speaking to People magazine she said: "I was sick of feeling the way that I did in the days after the diagnosis. I knew I needed to take control."
The 40-year-old television personality first suspected there was something wrong when she felt a lump during a routine self-examination last year, and although nothing was detected during a prior mammogram she was still worried and decided to see a specialist.
A needle biopsy followed by a lumpectomy found that she had breast cancer, and she's admitted that at first she had no idea how she was going to cope.
She said: "I felt like an elephant was sitting on my chest."
However, after visiting three different specialists and being advised that her options were either to undergo a double mastectomy or a less-radical second lumpectomy with radiation treatment, she made her decision.
Samantha - who has daughters Josselyn, 6, and Hilary, 3, with her husband Michael Hess - admitted she then "felt so much calmer" after taking control of her treatment programme.