It’s been almost two months since NBC News’ Andrea Mitchell took to the air to tell viewers she had been diagnosed with breast cancer. On Friday night, at the Susan G. Komen Honoring the Promise Gala at the Kennedy Center, the veteran journalist opened up about the experience a little more, including how the other half of her Washington power couple, Alan Greenspan, handled the ordeal.
“He went to every doctor’s appointment and held my hand literally and figuratively through this and he’s been the most amazing support,” Mitchell told Yeas & Nays. “I can say it’s wonderful to have your friends and your family around you. To have such a loving partner and husband makes you feel whole.”
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Mitchell’s job for the evening was to present, alongside Komen founder and CEO Nancy Brinker, a posthumous lifetime achievement award to former first lady Betty Ford. (A teary-eyed Susan Ford Bales accepted it on her mother’s behalf). Ford had allowed cameras into her hospital room after her own mastectomy and is credited with changing attitudes about the then-taboo subject of breast cancer. “It was an extraordinarily loving and intimate moment that she permitted to be broadcast to the world precisely to convey to women and to men that there was nothing stigmatizing about breast cancer treatment, nothing disabling or disfiguring or, yes, even unsexy about a woman post-surgery,” Mitchell told the crowd. Brinker added that Ford had in fact attended Komen’s first ever fundraiser: a lady’s polo match. “She only had one question: ‘Would she have to ride a horse?’ ” Brinker explained. ” ‘No,’ I said, and she happily accepted.”
Friday’s gala also attracted a slew of actors, musicians and media types including Kerry Washington, Donald Faison, Jennifer Beals, Natasha Bedingfield, Denyce Graves, Wolf Blitzer and mistress of ceremonies Hoda Kotb. The event raised $2 million for research and programs in the Washington area.
