Isabella Strahan taught her famous father a thing or two about perseverance.
Months after the 20-year-old completed treatment for medulloblastoma, a malignant tumor that forms in the cerebellum, and revealed she was cancer-free, her father, Michael Strahan, 52, opened up to PEOPLE on City and country11th Annual Philanthropy Summit on Tuesday, October 29, about what it was like to watch her medical journey.
“It was inspiring but difficult because I watch her go through something and tell everyone about it, and I see it in real time, and then I know she’s sharing something so personal with everyone,” he says, referring to Isabella’s popular YouTube blogs where documented every step of her treatment.
Michael Strahan attends the Town & Country Philanthropy Summit at Hearst Tower on October 29, 2024 in New York City.
Craig Barritt/Getty
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While it is Good morning America Cohost admits he doesn’t know if he could be as vulnerable as his daughter, telling PEOPLE that it showed him that if you “take your pain and make it a message,” “you can help other people get through their pain through your message.”
“She was just a phenomenal young adult and I couldn’t be more proud of her for doing that,” he says.
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Michael Strahan and Isabella Strahan.
Michael Strahan/Instagram
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Isabella announced her diagnosis during a segment on Good morning America in January. She first learned of the condition in late October and underwent emergency surgery at Cedars-Sinai to remove the mass the day before her 19th birthday.
“Hearing the words, cancer-free, makes you extremely happy,” says the former NFL star. “It doesn’t make you any less nervous. I’ll be honest with you. I’m still nervous.”
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Isabella Strahan.
Isabella Strahan/instagram
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“For now, I’m still in spasms every day, but it made me happy because I saw that there was a sense in her head of the end of that part of her journey, and that was important that she hoped to know that, okay, let’s try to pick up my life and take my life’s work and leave here,” he adds.
The television host tells PEOPLE that his daughter, who is a student at the University of Southern California, is back in school, “she loves college, she loves being around her friends, she loves going to class.”
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Isabella Strahan.
Isabella Strahan/instagram
“I think it gave her such a different appreciation of life, especially as a young adult,” he says.
At Tuesday’s event, Michael also admitted that he finds it hard to look back on his daughter’s journey on her vlogs, telling the crowd: “If I went back and saw it again, I think it would just crush me more.”
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As he reflects on his journey in the cover story for City and countryIsabella shared that she “feels like I’ve grown in a lot of ways.”
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Source: HIS Education