Michael Strahan’s Daughter Isabella, 19, Reveals Brain Tumor Diagnosis: ‘Just Have to Keep Living Every Day’

Michael Strahan’s daughter Isabella Strahan is undergoing treatment after being diagnosed with medulloblastoma, a common malignant tumor that forms in the cerebellum, the part of the brain located at the base of the skull.

A student and her father opened news about her health in a segment that aired on Good morning America Thursday. She learned of her condition in late October and underwent emergency surgery at Cedars-Sinai to remove the mass on Oct. 27, a day before her 19th birthday.

“I feel good. Not too bad,” said Isabella, who will begin chemotherapy next month at Duke Children’s Hospital & Health Center in Durham, North Carolina. “That’s my next step. I’m ready for it to start and I’m one day closer to the end. … I’m very excited for this whole process to be over. But you just have to keep living every day, I think through the whole thing.”

“I literally think that, in many ways, I am the luckiest man in the world, because I have an amazing daughter,” said Michael (52) in an interview with his colleague GMA co-hosted by Robin Roberts. “I know she’s going through it, but I know we’re never given more than we can handle and she’s going to break this.”

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Isabella is one of Strahan’s four children. The former NFL star has two older children – Tanita (32) and Michael Jr. (29) – with his first wife Wanda Hutchins, before welcoming Isabella and her twin sister Sophia with his second wife Jean Muggli.

In his interview with GMA, Isabella said she first started experiencing symptoms of a brain tumor when she was a freshman at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles. “I didn’t notice anything was wrong until probably October 1,” she said. – Then I definitely noticed headaches, nausea, I couldn’t walk straight.

ABC

After Isabella initially dismissed it as dizziness, her condition took a turn for the worse on October 25, when she woke up in the early hours of the morning “vomiting blood”. The family encouraged her to seek medical help immediately.

Michael explained: “That’s when we decided, ‘You really need to go for a thorough check-up.’ And thank you dear doctor. I feel like this doctor saved her life because she was thorough enough to say, ‘Let’s do a full exam.’ ”

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After going to Cedars-Sinai for a full MRI, doctors discovered Isabella had developed a fast-growing tumor in the back of her brain. It measured 4 centimeters—bigger than a golf ball.

Michael was told the news before Isabella. “It didn’t feel real,” he said. “I don’t really remember much. I just remember trying to figure out how to get there [Los Angeles] as soon as possible.”

The father of four children took off with GMA to be by his daughter’s side, he told ABC PEOPLE at the time that he was “dealing with some personal family matters.”

Although medulloblastoma is common, with about 500 children diagnosed with it a year, Michael said it’s “rare” in someone her age. “It’s still scary because there’s still so much to go through,” he admitted. “And the hardest thing is to get over the thought that she has to go through this alone.”

Michael Strahan and daughter Isabella.

Michael Strahan/Instagram

After the operation, Isabella underwent several rounds of radiation, as well as a month of rehabilitation. “I had to ring the bell yesterday,” Isabella told cancer survivor Roberts, 63. “It was great. It was very exciting because it was a long 30 sessions, six weeks.”

Her twin sister Sophia was by her side, helping Isabella learn to walk again.

Isabella plans to document her journey in a new YouTube series to benefit Duke Children’s Hospital and Health Center.

“It’s been two months of keeping it quiet, which is definitely hard. I don’t want to hide it anymore because it’s hard to always be secret,” she said on GMA. “I hope to be just a voice, and be [someone] who maybe [those who] going through chemotherapy or radiation can look.”

Sophia Strahan, host Michael Strahan and Isabella Strahan at the 2019 Nickelodeon Kids’ Choice Sports Honors.

Matt Winkelmeyer/Getty

Never miss a story — sign up for PEOPLE’s free daily newsletter to stay up-to-date on the best PEOPLE has to offer, from juicy celebrity news to compelling human interest stories. She further said that the experience helped her gain a new perspective on life. “Perspective is a big thing,” she said. “I’m grateful. I’m just grateful that I’m walking or seeing friends or doing something, because when you can’t do something, it really affects you.”

And Michael also sees life differently now. “You learn that you’re probably not as strong as you thought you were when you have to really think about the real things, and I realized that I needed everyone’s support,” he said on GMA. “You think, ‘I’m an athlete, a strong guy, you know, I can come and handle it, I’m the father in the family.’ It’s not about any of that. It doesn’t matter. And it really made me change my perspective on so many things in my life.”

Good morning America airs weekdays on ABC beginning at 7 a.m. ET.

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