Facing Adversity with Grace: CNN’s Sara Sidner Confronts Cancer Diagnosis
As chaos erupted in war-torn Israel, CNN senior correspondent Sara Sidner reported live from the frontlines, bearing witness to profound human suffering. Little did her audience know that Sidner confronted her own private battle back home, having just received the devastating news of her stage 3 breast cancer diagnosis.
Upon returning stateside, the intrepid journalist processed her diagnosis with grit and grace before breaking the news Monday on CNN News Central. Sidner sat down exclusively with Harper’s Bazaar this week to share her reflections on life and living after cancer turned her world upside down.
Rather than recoil in fear, Sidner chose to face cancer head-on, resolving to fight with every tool at her disposal. She emersed herself in treatment, refusing to let cancer interfere with her passion for journalism. Between chemotherapy sessions, she continued anchoring her morning show without missing a beat, even appearing on the CNN Heroes red carpet just 48 hours after beginning treatment.
“I’m living and I’m loving living because I know it can be short,” she told Bazaar. “I don’t know how this is going to end…[but] we have the ability to feel joy at any point as long as we’re breathing.”
Far from dampening her joie de vivre, the brush with mortality imparted a profoundly expanded perspective. “Mentally, it has been 90% good for me because it’s just opened my eyes to how beautiful this life that we have is,” Sidner said. “I love my life now more than I can remember since probably 7 or 8. I really, truly feel grateful just to be here.”
While reporting on the war in Israel, Sidner witnessed profound resilience amidst unfathomable grief. The experience galvanized her own strength to weather the crucible ahead. “Seeing people still live through the worst thing that has ever happened to them with grace and kindness, I was blown away by their resilience,” she recalled. “In some weird way, it helped me with my own perspective.”
Initially avoiding telling friends and family as she processed the diagnosis, Sidner soon realized she couldn’t face cancer alone. Now she hopes that openly discussing her experience can encourage other women to prioritize breast health.
“To all my sisters, Black, White, and brown: Please, for the love of God, do your [breast] checks yourself,” she implored Bazaar readers. “Don’t play with this, just please try to catch it before I did.”
While the road ahead still stretches long, Sidner tackles each day with profound gratitude to bear witness to both the joy and the sorrow in our broken world. Come what may, she resolved to live gracefully through the process, embodying the very resilience that first inspired her own courage.
“The bald truth is my hair’s coming out,” she acknowledged matter-of-factly. “I don’t put my personal stuff out there that often, but I can do something for someone because I have cancer. I can warn somebody.”
However her story unfolds, Sidner will undoubtedly face the future with that same intrepid spirit that led her into war zones from Ukraine to Afghanistan. After all, she’s never been one to shy away from adversity. Why start now?
